Food packaging and its oxygen transfer models in active multilayer structures: A theoretical review

Many food products are sensitive to oxygen which can promote rancidity, aerobic microorganism growth, browning, vitamin degradation, flavor loss, and other undesirable reactions. Active packaging concepts have been successfully applied to delay these deteriorative phenomena. In particular, oxygen scavengers help limit O2 ingress into packaging thus extending product shelf-life and thereby reducing food waste. Besides oxygen barrier polymers, other composite materials have been developed to reduce the overall O2 permeability into the package by adding oxygen scavengers or barrier fillers into the packaging structures. Typical thermoplastic food packaging barrier properties are summarized, including commercially available ones, and reported in the patent literature. Furthermore, various mathematical models have been developed to predict the oxygen transport behavior in active packaging to simulate oxygen transport in polymeric and composite materials. Such models are helpful to provide a better understanding of the mass transport fundamentals involved and shorten product development cycle time and cost. This review provides an overview of various oxygen absorber systems used in active food packaging. It also summarizes the mathematical models that simulate oxygen transport and absorption in different polymer films. Finally, these models can be adapted for other polymers and O2 scavengers to simulate O2 transfer on active polymeric materials. Simulation tools help the fundamental understanding of the O2 transport behavior and facilitate to developing novel active packaging systems that extend food shelf-life and enhance their safety. Graphical Abstract