Recent trends and innovations in smart and AI-based food packaging: A review

Food packaging is crucial for ensuring food safety, maintaining product quality, and reducing food waste. However, traditional packaging systems cannot provide real-time information or predictions about product status. This limitation impacts supply chain visibility and effective shelf-life management. To address these issues, integrating artificial intelligence (AI) with innovative packaging methods, such as smart, active, intelligent, and biodegradable packaging, has become a promising approach. AI-enabled food packaging creates more responsive, accurate, and sustainable systems. It allows for real-time spoilage detection, predicts shelf-life, and improves traceability through machine learning and blockchain technologies. This review discusses recent advancements in AI-integrated smart packaging. It includes AI-driven freshness sensors, data-driven traceability systems, and eco-friendly packaging materials, showcasing their potential to enhance food safety, improve supply chain efficiency, and reduce food waste. Furthermore, it emphasizes future research directions. These focus on next-generation biodegradable smart sensors, advanced machine learning models for predictions, and developing sustainable, scalable packaging systems to strengthen global food security.