## 6 Applications of Antimicrobial Peptides in Active Packaging  
Food packaging is a phenomenon of holding food in a material that fulfils four basic functions: containment, convenience, communication and protection. Containment refers to the fact that packaging material should be compatible with the food in terms of holding/carrying the product. Convenience means that the packaging material should be easy to use by the consumers. Communication means that the packaging material should include all the mandatory information required to be known to the consumer. Additionally, protection focuses on the prevention of undesirable changes in the physical, chemical and biological attributes of the food. Packaging can be classified based on the type of material, type of use and novel packaging. Based on the material packaging, there are four types: paper and paperboard, plastic, metal and glass. Based on usage, packaging has three types: primary, secondary and tertiary. Novel packaging includes innovative packaging, such as active packaging and intelligent packaging. Active packaging is defined as a packaging system that interacts with the surroundings of food to extend its shelf life [70]. Active packaging helps in achieving the selective permeation. Methods to incorporate active components into the packaging are coating, micro perforation, lamination, co-crutusion, or polymer blending [71]. Active packaging includes oxygen scavenger, carbon dioxide scavenger and emitters, ethylene scavenger, antimicrobial packaging and antioxidant packaging. Intelligent packaging provides information about the packaged product by sensing some of the properties of food, it includes indicators, sensors and data carriers [72]. In recent years, active packaging has attained a lot of attention due its capability to fulfil consumers demand as well as its positive impact towards biodegradability and sustainability. Antimicrobial packaging is one type of active packaging, which can be defined as a system that prevents undesirable microbial growth on food, resulting in the deterioration of quality using antimicrobials, such as enzymes, bacteriocins, natural extracts, organic acids, etc. [73]. In the past few years, peptides harvested from insects have been investigated as antimicrobial agents for food packaging, and positive results were observed. The matrix used for carrying antimicrobial agents are usually bio-based polymers that can be biodegradable (for example, starch) or non-biodegradable (for example, polyethylene) to obtain a material with a negligible impact on environment [74]. These materials can be further classified into edible or non-edible, depending on the composition. Edible polymers, such as polysaccharides, proteins and lipids, have no hazardous impact on animals and humans [75]. The mechanism of antimicrobial packaging can be explained well by understanding the following three inter-related segments (Figure 7): (i) the incorporation system, (ii) the release system and (iii) the interaction and inhibition system. (i) The Incorporation System: This segment involves the study of the adequate addition of antimicrobial peptides into the packaging material. It includes the importance of the amount incorporated and the method of incorporation. Antimicrobial peptides can be incorporated into packaging material in three ways by directly incorporating peptides into packaging material, coating and immobilisation of peptides on the polymer surface using physical or chemical methods [50]. Precise incorporation system helps in attaining the stability and sustainability. (ii) The Release System: Incorporated antimicrobial peptides are diffused from the packaging surface into the headspace or onto the food surface. The release of AMPs depends on temperature. When increasing the temperature, the release rate is found to increase. It was also reported that the type of packaging matrix affects the release rate of nisin. The highest nisin diffusion coefficient was observed in hydroxypropyl methylcellulose and the lowest in chitosan [76].