ABSTRACT
In traditional packaging, packages are generally used to protect foods from external deteriorative environmental factors and to provide consumers with ease of use. Although traditional packaging is applied to assist food distribution systems in the marketplace, they are no longer meeting the today’s consumer demands (Yam et al. 2005). Nowadays, food packaging is sought to perform new purposes besides its primary functions. For these new purposes, new developments in meat packaging have attracted great attention. In fact, due to its highly perishable nature and continuous changes during postmortem storage, new meat packaging needs to provide the highest safety and hygiene of the commercialized products. Introducing new packaging technologies to meat products offers new and alternative ways to protect products from off-odor, off-flavor, discoloration, and changes in appearance, texture, 522and nutritional properties and that can delay the starting of microbial spoilage. Wide ranges of packaging systems and technologies have been already introduced for muscle foods including fresh and cooked meat and ready-to-eat meat products. In recent years, active and intelligent packaging (which could be more closely defined as smart packaging) have been proposed in order to provide further additional advantages that improve the consumer’s choice. Application of the novel packaging systems to improve the shelf life and textural properties of meat and meat products is highlighted in this chapter.
