ABSTRACT
Fruits are good source of vitamins, minerals, dietary fiber, and various phytochemicals. In spite of that consumer is not getting proper health benefit of nutrients which are present in fruits as they are susceptible to incremental decrease when exposed to improper environmental condition like respiration, physical injury, relative humidity, high temperature, ethylene, handling and so on. So, in order to avail maximum benefit from the fruits and to maintain their wholesomeness it very essential to employ some means to preserve its quality. Active packaging can be used as one of the innovative ways to preserve fruits by modifying its environmental condition within the food package without affecting its nutritional quality. Active packaging maintains fruits in an appropriate condition by influencing the various physiological processes (respiration and transpiration) chemical processes (lipid oxidation) and prevention of insect infestation and microbial spoilage. Active packaging methods include oxygen scavengers, ethylene scavengers, carbon dioxide scavengers/emitter, humidity controller, ethanol emitter, flavor/odor absorber, and antimicrobial food packaging. In this chapter, various nuances pertaining to active packaging of fruits is critically reviewed and opportunities for future research are explored.
