Intelligent Packaging for Food: A Review

Many years ago, packaging had been practiced to protect food from different environmental impacts and to ease of supply. Now a days packaging does not just represent covering of food material, but it also offers benefits like, maintaining or extending shelf-life, monitoring food quality and safety too. The packaging practice also offers the other advantages by differentiating products from alternative competitors, improving exposure on store shelves and adding value to itself through the design and shape of packet [1]. The packaging is the fifth-largest sector of India’s economy which is growing rapidly. In 2019, India's packaging industry was worth USD 50.5 billion, and by 2025, it is predicted to be worth USD 204.81 billion. In India, the packaging industry is developing at a rate of 22 to 25 per cent every year, according to the Packaging Industry Association of India (PIAI) [2]. Packaging is a system in which freshly produced or processed products are reached to consumers in safe condition from production centre. Packaging is defined by the International Packaging Institute (IPI) as the wrapping of products, commodities, or packages in a pouch, bag, box, cup, can, bottle, or other container form. Packaging provides prevention of natural deterioration, physical protection and safety to the product. Appropriate packaging makes product convenient to filling, sealing, storage and shift from one place to another. It also informs details of product to the consumer like, details of product and producer, ingredients, nutritional facts, price, shelf life, handling practices, etc. The product can be identified easily by customers. It should be attractive and colourful according to the product. The packaging of product can also increase the demand of product. Intelligent packaging is defined as packaging that contains an external or internal indicator to provide information about aspects of the history of the package and/or the quality of the food. The term "intelligent" is defined by the American Heritage Dictionary as "having specific data storage and processing skills" and "showing sound judgement and rationality". Contribution of intelligent packaging is effective as it has ability to acquire, store, process and share information [3]. Active and intelligent packaging are examples of packaging technologies that promise to produce items that are safer and of higher quality. Unfortunately, we use intelligent and active packaging alternatively but actually, active packaging refers to the incorporation of additives into the package with the aim of maintaining or extending the product quality and shelf life. Intelligent systems are those that monitor the actual situation of packaged food in order to provide information about its quality during transportation and storage [4]. Active packaging is packaging in which subsidiary elements have been purposefully put in or on the packaging material or the package headspace in order to increase the package system's performance [5]. Indeed, intelligent packaging could be defined as a packaging system that is capable of carrying out intelligent functions (such as sensing, detecting, tracing, recording and communicating) to facilitate decision making to extend shelf life, improve Abstract Intelligent packaging plays salient role to minimize food waste of perishable and minimally processed food. This is an evolving technology to inform customers related to food without interfering in food package. Intelligent packaging technology works on the basis of chemical changes, enzymatic reaction and microbial activity of packed food. According to the nature of the food different type of indicators, sensors and RFID tags are used to determine actual quality of food. Changes in food quality can be converted to readable form by intelligent packaging technology. Intelligent packaging technology can work efficiently to monitor quality of different types of food with different application of indicators, sensors or RFID tags. Intelligent packaging technology is new and developing technology, so that it is expensive as compared to other packaging technology. Intelligent packaging will be becoming more widely used in future with new innovations in this field.