Smart Packaging in Food Industry: Opportunities and Challenges
A special issue of Foods (ISSN 2304-8158). This special issue belongs to the section "Food Packaging and Preservation".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 May 2026 | Viewed by 7
Special Issue Editor
2. Department of Chemistry, Zonguldak Bülent Ecevit University, 67100 Zonguldak, Turkey
Interests: food packaging polymers; nanotechnology; polymer synthesis; biopolymers; autoxidation; unsaturated plant oils; bacterial polyesters; polymer characterization; block/graft copolymers
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Food is wrapped with food packaging materials in order to transport it from harvesting to market shelves, handle it easily, and protect it from environmental effects. Food packaging is essential for food safety, hygiene, and marketing; it is also needed to prevent oxidation and bacterial attack as well as provide gas barrier properties. Therefore, food packaging materials are wanted to have these food-preventing properties. Most research is focused on the preparation of food packaging materials that have antioxidant, antibacterial, and gas barrier properties and are called “active food packaging” materials. Food packaging materials can also display the food processing date, the use-by date, the barcode, and manufacturer information. Such packaging is referred to as “smart/intelligent food packaging materials”. Active food packaging material includes oxygen scavengers, carbon dioxide emitters/absorbers, moisture absorbers, and antimicrobials. Beyond active packaging (antioxidant, antimicrobial, gas/moisture control), Intelligent food packaging offers an intriguing avenue for developing innovative bio-based packaging technologies. Modern smart packaging integrates biosensors, Internet of Things (IoT), and machine learning, a field of artificial intelligence (AI/ML), for real-time monitoring, predictive quality control, and enhanced food safety. Sensors, processing ability, and software can be connected and exchange data with other devices and systems over the internet in IoT. Devices only need to be connected to a network and addressable individually. ML is the study of statistical algorithms that can learn from data and generalize to unseen data. Thus, tasks can be performed without explicit instructions.
Because of the environmental issue and limited fossil fuel reserves, biodegradable polymers from renewable resources are preferred for food packaging. However, olefins are considered to be key components of the chemical industry. Food packaging needs strong films for safe transportation. This way, the deterioration of foods is prevented until delivery to the consumer. Packaging materials should contain antibacterial, antioxidant compounds covalently attached or as an additive inside the packaging materials. This Special Issue covers each side of deeply focusing on the packaging materials.
Prof. Dr. Baki Hazer
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Foods is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- food packaging materials
- biodegradable polymers
- antibacterial
- antioxidant
- foods
- elasticity
- mechanical strength
- biosensors
- internet of things
- machine learning
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