ABSTRACT
82Intelligent or smart packaging is the integration of sensor or indicator into the food packaging system that has intelligent functions for monitoring of food quality and safety, such as freshness, leakage, carbon dioxide, oxygen, pH, time or temperature, and pathogens. Thus, this integration is truly integrated and interdisciplinary systems that invoke expertise from the fields of chemistry, biochemistry, physics, and electronics as well as food science and technology. Therefore, this technology is needed as real-time quality control and safety monitoring in terms of consumers, authorities, and food producers. It has great potential in the development of new sensing systems integrated in the food packaging, which are beyond the existing conventional technologies, like control of weight, volume, color, and appearance. In this chapter, the application of intelligent packaging for fruits and vegetables are presented, such as freshness and ripeness monitoring. In the case of fruits, sensors/indicators for ripeness detection have been developed. While for vegetables, sensors/indicators for freshness monitoring have been performed. For ripeness detection, the sensor was constructed to detect volatile compounds (e.g., ethylene, volatile acid, etc., that are produced during the ripeness process). While for freshness detection, the sensor works based on pH change or volatile compounds produced gradually during degradation of vegetable. Furthermore, the sensor responses were found to correlate with pH, sensory evaluation, and bacterial growth patterns in food samples.
