Novel Packaging Technologies in Dairy Products

Abstract

The packaging process is an important step in maintaining the quality characteristics of foods. Packaging foods protects products from external effects and provides product information to consumers. Due to the various changes occurring during the distribution and storage of the products, some significant quality characteristics can be lost. In recent years, novel packaging technologies have been developed to supply long shelf life, safety, and ‘fresh-like' characteristics to the products. These novel technologies include nanotechnology, modified atmosphere packaging, active packaging, and intelligent/smart packaging. Since dairy products are generally vulnerable to biological, physical, and chemical changes, they lose their quality characteristics within a short term. Therefore, the use of these novel techniques in dairy products is greatly important. This chapter informs about general principles of the novel packaging techniques and their current applications in dairy technology.