## 4 Conclusions  
It is well-known that during a new product development and prior to its commercialization, technological concerns related to its shelf-life and sensory properties along with its implementation in industrial scale may need to be addressed. The present study tried to systematically deal with the aforementioned concerns. Specifically, the results showed that the developed antimicrobial active packaging based on \"_tsipouro_\" combined with high oxygen MAP significantly extended (\(p<0.05\)) the shelf-life of a perishable meat products like ground beef (ca. 2-fold compared to controls) during storage at chill (at 0 and 4 \({}^{\circ}\)C) or abuse temperatures (at 8 \({}^{\circ}\)C). Moreover, the transfer of such innovative applications in large scale is a common issue for the industry, since modification and/or purchase of new equipment may be needed. Considering that, the developed product-packaging of the present study was deliberately based on the commercial packaging of ground beef, while the applied modifications took place using materials (absorbent pads) already existing in the package. Thus, in case a meat industry decides to launch such an antimicrobial active packaging, the additional cost would be limited in the applied antimicrobial and minor potential modifications across the industrial line. Nonetheless, cost and market analyses are also necessary for tailor-made evaluation of whether the proposed antimicrobial active packaging technology is feasible by the industry of concern and thus, whether it may be readily channelled to the market.  
Figure 7: Ethanol in ground beef (ppm) packaged with absorbent pads supplemented with a total volume of 50 mL \"_tsipouro_\" (40 mL under the ground beef piece and 10 mL under the labelling, facing the headspace) under 80% O\({}_{2}\): 20% CO\({}_{2}\) at 0, 4, 8, and 12 \({}^{\circ}\)C. Samplings were performed in depth of 1 cm either from the surface or from the bottom side of the 500 g ground beef piece. Untreated samples served as controls. Bars under the same conditions (treatment, sampling side, and storage temperature) having different lowercase letter are significantly different from each other (\(p<0.05\)); Star indicates statistical significance of “_tsipouro_” treatment in comparison to controls under the same conditions (sampling side, storage day, and temperature) (\({}^{\circ}\): \(p<0.05\)).  
**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, A.E.K. and P.N.S.; methodology, A.E.K. and G.-L.P.; validation, A.E.K., G.-L.P. and P.N.S.; formal analysis, A.E.K. and G.-L.P.; investigation, A.E.K. and G.-L.P.; writing--original draft preparation, A.E.K.; writing--review and editing, A.E.K. and P.N.S.; supervision, P.N.S.; project administration, P.N.S. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.  
**Funding:** This research has been co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund of the European Union and Greek national funds through Operational Program Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, under call RESEARCH-CREATE-INNOVATE (project code: T1 EDK-02735).  
**Acknowledgments:** The authors gratefully acknowledge meat industry FLORIDIS S.A. for supplying ground beef packaging used throughout the study.  
**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.