Films with antimicrobial activity for meat products

Abstract

There is a high demand for animal-sourced foods because of their high nutritional content, but these can also be a breeding ground for pathogens and spoilage microbes. Meanwhile, the quality and safety of meat are a great concern for the consumers around the world. In this article, problems related to meat and meat items are discussed with antimicrobial films (AMFs) as a possible solution. The authors have discussed the different types of AMFs studied in recent years with challenges and the improvements made by different researchers. In the authors' point of view, the use of AMFs extracted from the natural sources is a promising strategy to minimize microorganisms’ growth in meat and meat items with no physicochemical and sensory changes that can promote the consumer acceptability and economically efficient approach. The authors suggested that more research is required on standardization and technical parameters in the development of low-cost and effective AMFs. Moreover, in the authors' opinion, cytotoxicity studies can be performed on AMFs for consumers' safety.