Advances in antimicrobial biomaterials for food packaging: A focus on food safety mechanisms and applications.

Food contamination and spoilage caused by pathogenic microorganisms pose significant challenges to the food industry. To address these issues, antimicrobial food packaging has emerged as a critical solution for enhancing food safety by preventing microbial contamination and inhibiting foodborne pathogens, thereby indirectly extending shelf life. This approach integrates antimicrobial agents into biomaterials to inhibit microbial growth through controlled release, direct contact, and barrier formation. In this context, biomaterials primarily serve as structural platforms, whereas antimicrobial agents are the primary contributors to microbial inactivation. Recent advancements have shifted packaging trends from conventional plastics to active, biodegradable, and edible biopolymer films. Both natural biomaterials (e.g., polysaccharides and proteins) and synthetic biomaterials (e.g., polymeric materials such as PLA and PVA) are employed in these systems. The need for antimicrobial food packaging has, therefore, increased significantly and this packaging is seen as a promising tool for improving the safety of food by inactivating microbial pathogens and controlling microbial growth. These antimicrobial systems can be directly blended or surface coated into polymer matrices, providing targeted antimicrobial properties. However, regulatory and safety challenges remain before widespread commercial application. Migration of active substances must comply with applicable regulatory limits, while the potential toxicity associated with certain antimicrobial agents, including essential oils at high concentrations and nanoparticles, requires careful evaluation. This review comprehensively discusses antimicrobial biomaterials employed in food packaging, its mechanism of action and fabrications methods, primarily for microbial control and food safety. It focuses on the role of antimicrobial agents in these systems and its effect on food safety, not on material development or quality improvements. The review also considers the challenges that are currently facing and proposes future research directions for improving the antimicrobial packaging solutions.