Functional Packaging Materials for Fishery Products Applications

Abstract

Demand for fishery products is on the rise as it is regarded as health food due to their easily digestible protein with all the essential amino acids, essential fatty acids, vitamins and minerals in good proportion. However, they are also highly perishable due to their intrinsic properties apart from other external factors which affect their quality. Suitable processing and storage will enhance the eating quality of fish for an extended period. Processing methods adopted to preserve the quality of fishery products have to be appropriately supplemented with the selection of better packaging materials. Conventional packaging materials used for food packaging offer limited advantages. Apart from this, the petroleum-based packaging materials pose environmental problems if not properly managed. As a result, the demand for biodegradable packaging materials is increasing worldwide. Biomaterials from the aquatic origin are gaining increased attention in developing biodegradable packaging materials, especially with certain functionality. This chapter gives a brief note on the functional packaging materials like oxygen scavenging film, fish freshness indicating film, thermochromatic indicating film, antimicrobial film, antioxidant film, pathogen indicating film, off-odour scalping, flavour emitting films, etc.