Nowadays, consumers are more concerned about food safety and quality. The higher demand for healthy, safe, and fresh‐like products, as well as changes in consumer preferences, promotes the development of innovative approaches in technologies to preserve food. On the other hand, the shelf life of most food products depends upon the biological, chemical, and physical interactions between the food, package, and the ambient environment. Therefore, the purpose of modern food quality preservation and assurance with packaging technologies is to enhance food safety and quality as natural a way as possible. In this regard, active packaging is an innovative concept that can be defined as a mode of packaging in which the package, the product, and the environment interact to prolong shelf life or enhance safety or sensory properties, while maintaining the quality of the product. Practical applications The implementation of active packaging is a concept in the field of food packaging which has been developed to prolong a product's shelf‐life and science dairy products are very perishable among most other food products, application of active systems can enhance their food quality and safety properly.

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Corn bran, as one of the high‐fructose corn syrup industries’ by‐products, is a rich source of functional fibers. The major fraction of corn bran is insoluble arabinoxylan having lower functional properties than the minor soluble function. Therefore, the main aim of this research was to increase the soluble fiber content of corn bran and use it for functional cake production. In this regard, milled corn bran with three different sizes was exposed to one factor enzymatic treatment to select the best sieving size (the criterion for selecting the best product in each stage of assay was production of the highest amount of soluble fiber). Then, milled corn bran with the best particle size was exposed to nine different enzymatic treatments to select the best enzymatic treatment condition. Additionally, the extruder feed (corn bran) moisture was adjusted to three levels to select the best level of feed moisture content and use it for performing nine different extruding experiments. Concerning integrated extrusion‐enzymatic treatment, nine different extruding pretreatments were conducted on corn bran through selecting the optimum moisture level of extruding. Afterward, the product was milled and sieved to the optimum size for enzymatic treatment, and the nine pretreatments were combined with nine different enzymatic treatments. The product containing the highest soluble fiber was selected and used at various levels for functional cake production. Finally, some organoleptic and physicochemical properties (springiness, gumminess, hardness, cohesiveness, Bostwick number, density) of the produced product were analyzed.

Antifungal activity of essential oils (EOs) of Zataria multiflora (thyme) and Syzygium aromaticum (clove) against Aspergillus flavus growth and aflatoxin B1 production was studied in potato dextrose agar (PDA) and potato dextrose broth (PDB), as well as in Iranian white cheese as a food model. The results showed that the inhibitory potential of EOs in the PDB medium is more than PDA medium. Clove EO on PDB medium prevented fungal growth and aflatoxin B1 production at 300 and 100 ppm, respectively. However, the thyme EO was not able to inhibit fungal growth completely and showed the strongest inhibition effect at 400 ppm. EOs also had more inhibitory activity in laboratory culture media than the food environments. EOs in all concentrations reduced aflatoxin B1 production and fungal growth in cheese, but only the clove EO at 150 ppm was able to prevent the fungal growth and aflatoxin B1 production completely. Thyme EO reduced aflatoxin B1 value to below detection threshold (2 ppb) at 10 μl. Our findings propose EOs as a natural inhibitor to control fungal contamination of foodstuffs such as Iranian white cheese.

The essential oil (EO) from dried ground powder leaves and stems of Thymua danesis was extracted using hydrodistillation (HD), ohmic extraction (OE), ultrasound‐assisted HD and ultrasound‐assisted OE methods. Then, the antioxidant, antimicrobial, and sensory properties of the EO were investigated both in vitro and in food systems. Thyme EO extracted by ultrasound‐assisted HD method had promising antibacterial activities against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus and had the best antioxidant properties when tested in vitro. In food systems, higher concentrations of the EO were needed to exert similar antibacterial and antioxidant effects. Furthermore, thyme EO added yogurt and drink yogurt revealed better sensory properties than the control and fresh samples. Essential oil from Thymua danesis has a good potential to be used as an antioxidant, antimicrobial, and flavoring agent in food systems and the extraction method effects on the antioxidant and antimicrobial properties of the thyme extract.