Oxygen absorbers in food preservation: a review

Abstract

The preservation of packaged food against oxidative degradation is essential to establish and improve food shelf life, customer acceptability, and increase food security. Oxygen absorbers have an important role in the removal of dissolved oxygen, preserving the colour, texture and aroma of different food products, and importantly inhibition of food spoilage microbes. Active packaging technology in food preservation has improved over decades mostly due to the sealing of foods in oxygen impermeable package material and the quality of oxygen absorber. Ferrous iron oxides are the most reliable and commonly used oxygen absorbers within the food industry. Oxygen absorbers have been transformed from sachets of dried iron-powder to simple self-adhesive patches to accommodate any custom size, capacity and application. Oxygen concentration can be effectively lowered to 100 ppm, with applications spanning a wide range of food products and beverages across the world (i.e. bread, meat, fish, fruit, and cheese). Newer molecules that preserve packaged food materials from all forms of degradation are being developed, however oxygen absorbers remain a staple product for the preservation of food and pharmaceutical products to reduce food wastage in developed nations and increased food security in the developing & third world.

Active Packaging Applications for Food

“…A large variety of active packaging systems has been developed and, to date, numerous reviews have emphasized the potential of active packaging technologies to supply safer, “healthier,” and higher‐quality foods to the consumer (Kuorwel and others ; Brockgreitens and Abbas ). However, the number of reviews presenting the benefits of active packaging technologies applied to specific food products is limited (Llorens and others ; Pereira de Abreu and others ; Cichello ). Active packaging technologies that have been evaluated in model systems may not always behave in the same way in real food applications.…”

Purification, biochemical characterization and antifungal activity of a novel Aspergillus tubingensis glucose oxidase steady on broad range of pH and temperatures

“…GOD has several commercial and biotechnological applications including glucose and oxygen removal from dried egg, food and beverages to improve color, flavor and shelf life and also from mayonnaise to prevent rancidity [12]. It has been widely used as a potent antibacterial and antifungal agent in food industry [13]. Through a naturally produced hydrogen peroxide, GOD importantly inhibits food spoilage microbes like Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella infantis, Clostridium perfringens, Bacillus cereus and Listeria monocytogenes [12,14,15].…”

In Vitro Detection of Hypoxia Using a Ratiometric Quantum Dot-Based Oxygen Sensor

“…Furthermore, the quantification of oxygen is an indispensable part of environmental analysis, food packaging, and industrial monitoring. 6 …”