Prospecção tecnológica do setor de embalagens poliméricas antimicrobianas para alimentos

Abstract

The food packaging sector is currently challenged to reduce food waste and the potential risk of foodborne illnesses, which has driven the development of new packaging technologies to meet the consumers’ requirements concerning product safety and quality. Among new active packaging, in which the material interacts with food in a desirable way to maintain or prolong its quality and shelf life, antimicrobial packaging stands out due to its ability to reduce, retard or inhibit the growth of microorganisms that accelerate food spoilage. A great interest in antimicrobial packaging arises because of the diversity of polymeric materials used, the different application methods and the variety of products that can be packaged. In this way, this work is aimed to present a theoretical foundation and a brief literature review about antimicrobial packaging, in addition to mapping the scientific and technological development in this theme. Monitoring through patents and scientific articles available at the Derwent Innovations Index (DII) and Web of Science databases, considering the date range from the initial year approached by each platform until 2022, allowed comprehensive analyses of main trends in antimicrobial packaging, pointing to the progressive interest over the years in this developing field, mainly in Asian-Pacific countries, such as China and Japan. The technological prospecting also indicated increasing research towards antimicrobial polymer packaging from renewable and biodegradable sources, with emphasis on chitosan, cellulose and starch demonstrating a greater commitment to sustainability and allowing the identification of future trends in the food packaging market, such as edible packaging and those with internal polymeric coating, mainly provided by the casting method.