Responsive packaging systems can adapt to surrounding environments or react to stimuli in the food and/or regulate transport of encapsulated actives/nutrition in presence of external stimuli. It also converts chemical and biochemical signals into optical, electrical, mechanical signals etc. To allow real time food safety and quality monitoring along with extension of shelf-life of food products. These packaging systems are currently an emerging area in food packaging research and playing an increasingly important part in a diverse range of applications, such as nutrition delivery in controlled fashion, ‘on demand’ active delivery, spoilage indicators etc. This paper gives an overview of recent developments and challenges on the applications of stimuli-responsive materials towards food packaging area. We also highlight the future directions to convert research outcome into commercial products.
