Shoppers prefer to buy foods in transparent packaging, but the store display lights tend to discolor the meat items, particularly in the case of cured products. By removing oxygen through active packaging, meat product quality is retained for up to 21 days, an improvement over the usual seven days possible with older preservation methods.
What is active packaging? A common way to define active packaging is to highlight what distinguishes it from so-called conventional ('passive') packaging. Active packaging is intended to influence the packed food. It is intended to change the condition of the packed food, to extend shelf-life or improve sensory properties while maintaining the freshness and the quality of the food. Active packaging can be differentiated from intelligent packaging, such that : Active packaging is a type of packaging that maintains or enhances food quality and/or safety by interacting with the package content or its environment, whereas i ntelligent packaging is a type of packaging that senses the quality and/or safety of packaged food and transmits this information to the outside world.

The market for active packaging continues to develop well. Pre-prepared food products such as microwaveable meals and increasing use of small sized packages provide a good market for active packaging. Growing consumer demand for healthy food with either no preservatives or reduced amount of preservatives accelerates the use of active packaging. In the battle for consumer attention in store aisles, active packaging technology is used to provide shoppers with packaged meats and snack products that have enhanced eye appeal and that stay fresher in terms of taste, color and nutritional value.

Oxygen scavenger, that prevents oxygen in contact with packaged food product has almost 35-40% share of the active packaging segment. Oxygen is a major factor in food product degradation. Oxygen scavengers provide maximum preservation of original flavor, color and texture, which is important to military and civilian consumers alike. Active packaging systems provide more than just an inert barrier to the outside world, but actually create a new interactive environment inside the package or pouch - removing undesirable components and adding desirable ones. Food quality is preserved by modifying the inner atmosphere to very low residual oxygen retarding the growth of spoilage bacteria and mold, biochemical and enzymatic degradation, and survival of insect larvae, while eliminating the need for food additives such as BHA, BHT and sorbates. Oxygen scavengers can reduce the amount of oxygen in a package to less than 0.01%, as compared to traditional preservation methods such as gas flushing and vacuum packing, which reduce headspace oxygen to only about 0.50%.
For many food products, oxygen is detrimental to either taste, nutrients, colour or growth of mould & bacteria. Passive oxygen barrier can slow the ingress of oxygen but active oxygen scavenger absorbs oxygen that is in the head space of the package or that enters through the closure or wall. Oxygen scavenger gets activated by moisture. Carbon dioxide absorber is used commercially to suppress spoiling of fresh refrigerated food product. It also removes offensive odour and also suppresses growth of bacteria.

The second largest additive based segment is moisture scavenger, accounting for 16% market share. The other active additives are odour absorbers, ethylene absorbers etc.

Acetaldehyde, decomposed from PET during its moulding process, gives undesirable odour to water. Acetaldehyde scavenger lowers the acetaldehyde content to almost undetectable level. It is a high growth market segment. In the future, market for acetaldehyde scavenger will grow faster.
Fragrance in food, personal care & pharmaceutical product packaging is now increasingly used as it is an excellent marketing tool to enhance the sale.

The Active and Intelligent Packaging Market is already a multi-billion pound industry globally, which will continue to grow because of the demand for a range of products which suits the 21st century lifestyle. As the overall life expectancy will continue to increase, older consumers will become increasingly affluent, healthy, mobile and enthusiastic rather than resistant to new technologies. Interestingly, Europe tends to lag behind both Japan and the USA in this area.

		Materials science
		Chemistry & bio-chemistry
		Biology & micro-biology
		Advanced printing techniques
		Low power, low cost electronics
		RF electronics
		IT system engineering
		Production engineering

Although the upfront packaging cost is somewhat higher when applying active technology systems as compared to traditional methods, the payoff is greater in terms of quality retention, saleability and consumer satisfaction