Essential Oils and Their Application on Active Packaging Systems: A Review

Abstract

The food industry is continuously evolving through the application of innovative tools and ingredients towards more effective, safe, natural and ecofriendly solutions to satisfy the demands of the costumers. In this context, natural sources (i.e., leaves, seeds, peels or unused pulp) can entail a valuable source of compounds, such as essential oils (EOs), with recognized antioxidant and antimicrobial properties that can be used as natural additives in packaging applications. The current trend is the incorporation of EOs into diverse kinds of biodegradable materials, such as edible films, thus developing active packaging systems with improved preservation properties that can offer benefits to both the food and packaging industry by reducing food waste and improving the management of packaging waste. EOs may be added into the packaging material as free or encapsulated molecules, where, especially this last option, has been revealed as very promising. The addition of these lipophilic compounds provides to the end-product various bioactivities of interest, which can eventually extend the shelf-life of the product by preventing food spoilage. Pairing biodegradable packaging with EOs extracted from natural agro-industrial by-products can lead to a more sustainable food industry. Recent knowledge and advances on this issue will be reviewed in the present work.

Synergistic Antimicrobial Activities of Combinations of Vanillin and Essential Oils of Cinnamon Bark, Cinnamon Leaves, and Cloves

“…VA has been applied in apple juices to control L. monocytogenes, E. coli O157:H7, and L. innocua [ 22 , 23 ], so the application of CLOEO/VA, CLEO/VA, and CBEO/VA combinations of greater antimicrobial effect can be used to increase its effectiveness without negative sensory effect. VA can be used in food packaging [ 26 ], so the combinations of VA with the EOs studied herein (CLOEO/VA, CLEO/VA, and CBEO/VA) can be used in active packaging that is in direct contact with food. VA has also been used in edible packaging for apple cuts [ 27 ], so CLOEO/VA, CLEO/VA, and CBEO/VA combinations can have potential applications in this field.…”

“…Therefore, synergistic interactions should be used to reduce the organoleptic impact and thus facilitate application to a wider range of foods [ 9 ]. VA is used as a flavoring in numerous foods [ 26 ]. In previous studies, VA has been applied to milk at sensory acceptable concentrations of 900, 1400, and 1800 ppm with a partially inhibitory antimicrobial effect but with good results in combination with thermal treatment against L. monocytogenes [ 21 ].…”

“…EOs of cinnamon leaves have been applied as antimicrobials in orange and pomegranate juices [ 25 ]. Moreover, EOs of cinnamon bark and leaves and CA have been used as antimicrobials in films for active food packaging [ 7 , 26 ]. VA and cinnamon EOs have been applied to edible films for food packaging [ 27 ].…”

Can Sustainable Packaging Help to Reduce Food Waste? A Status Quo Focusing Plant-Derived Polymers and Additives

“…The antioxidant activity is not a property of a single phenolic compound, but it is widely distributed among the phenolic phytochemical constituents. So, anthocyans, flavonoids, phenolic acids, phenolic terpenes, and volatile oils are particularly interesting as antioxidants in food packaging [159,256].…”

Can Sustainable Packaging Help to Reduce Food Waste? A Status Quo Focusing Plant-derived Polymers and Additives

“…Due to their redox property they can act as reducing agents, hydrogen donors, singlet oxygen quenchers, metal chelating agents, and suppressors of free radicals [159,255].The antioxidant activity is not a property of a single phenolic compound, but it is widely distributed among the phenolic phytochemical constituents. So, anthocyans, flavonoids, phenolic acids, phenolic terpenes, and volatile oils are particularly interesting as antioxidants in food packaging [159,256].…”