Antimicrobial nanoparticles in active food packaging applications

Food is an imperative element for developing and surviving human life; on the other hand, food wastage is a serious issue globally. At present, a large part of the population spends a day deprived of food because of its inadequate supply, increasing population, and severe climate change. According to Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and United Nations (UN), >1.3 billion metric tons of consumable food is wasted each year. Wastage of food occurs during harvesting, transportation, and consumption. Based on data, 20% of food wastage comes from production, 19% from distribution, 1% from processing, and 60% from the consumers. A recent report of “Rethink Food Waste Through Economics and Data” suggests that vegetables and fruits are spoiled rapidly and contribute to a larger part of the waste, followed by dairy products, grains, and other supplies. There are numerous causes of food wastage, but the increasing population and growing demands of consumers make it more provocative for the food processing sector. Every day, enough food is produced to feed the whole population, but due to the wastage and lack of proper food processing, it cannot reach those in need. Food preservation is one of the vital solutions to the food wastage issue. The food preservation technique is not new; our ancestors also used this technology in natural ways to preserve and extend the shelf life of food. The research advancements in this area introduced many modern technologies to extend the food shelf life and restrict its spoilage. Still, food safety is a big concern, and hence day by day, new techniques are evolving for food preservation. The crucial prospect of food preservation is to eliminate the attack of microbes and restrict the chemical alteration in foods due to physical and environmental issues. The commonly used food preservation methods such as freezing, drying, heating, etc., are helping to extend the shelf life of foods, but they have many drawbacks as these methods mainly cause severe nutrient loss, food shrinkage, and as a whole, loss of foods. Recently, to address this issue, chemical and biological factors such as active packaging, coating, etc., are introduced.