Smart chitosan films as intelligent food packaging: An approach to monitoring food freshness and biomarkers

Food quality and freshness deterioration are global concerns during the packaging, distribution, and storage of perishable food items such as fish, meat, seafood, milk, fruits, and vegetables. Using smart packaging films to monitor food freshness biomarkers in real time can assist customers in making purchasing decisions. Recently, interest has risen in using smart chitosan films in intelligent packaging technologies to monitor food quality and safety. This review provides a thorough analysis of the mechanisms underlying the monitoring of food freshness biomarkers, the production of smart chitosan film, the integration of sense-active compounds, the biodegradation patterns, cytotoxicity and safety concerns, and the significant challenges to sustainable implementation. Several sense-active compounds from plant extracts, including anthocyanins, alizarin, betalains, and curcumin, have been employed to fabricate smart chitosan films. The most common freshness biomarkers: ammonia, pH, total volatile basic nitrogen (TVBN), and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS), are considered for assessing fish, meat, and milk quality using smart chitosan films. However, the responsive nature of the film to different freshness biomarkers depends on the sources and type of sense-active compounds incorporated in the film. Therefore, further research on smart chitosan films and their combination with other sense-active compounds or a combination of existing sense-active compounds at different concentrations is needed for sustainable application in the intelligent food packaging industry. • Sense-active compounds in smart chitosan films is reviewed and discussed. • The mechanism of smart chitosan films for monitoring food freshness biomarkers is elucidated. • The smart chitosan films quickly monitor fish, meat, and seafood freshness biomarkers. • Including a purified natural sense-active compound in the smart chitosan film could improve its functionality.