Reducing the amount of food that ends up in our bodies is a fundamental area of work in order to guarantee sustainability.

Reducing the amount of food that ends up in our bodies is a key area of work to ensure sustainability. Indicators can help us to achieve this goal by increasing the shelf life of food.

The article is available online at «Recent advances on intelligent embalatge as tools to redueix food waste» published in the Journal of Cleaner Production.

Abstract

Food waste is one of the main issues for international organisms. It is not only an ethical and economic issue but it also depletes the environment of limited natural resources. Among strategies suitable for fighting such challenge, intelligent packaging is an interesting tool to reduce waste derived from households and retailers. A revision of 45 recent advances in the area of optical systems for freshness monitoring is reported herein. The study covers fruits, vegetables, fish products and meat since they are the most representative fields of application. Furthermore, a discussion about the main research challenges and opportunities that will be faced by intelligent packaging in the coming years is included.

Keywords
Food freshness, Intelligent packaging.optoelectronic nose, Chromogenic array