Current Status and Challenges of Colorimetric Intelligent Packaging for Fruit and Vegetables: A Review

This review examines colorimetric indicator packaging approaches for fresh fruit and vegetable (F&V) products, focusing on freshness monitoring, quality considerations, and potential future issues. Currently, consumers increasingly need to know F&V provenance and more information on quality...

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Main Authors: Fikrte Woldeyes Hailu, Solomon Workneh Fanta, Alemayehu Ambaw Tsige, Mulugeta Admasu Delele
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2025-01-01
Series:Journal of Food Quality
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/jfq/6669828
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author Fikrte Woldeyes Hailu
Solomon Workneh Fanta
Alemayehu Ambaw Tsige
Mulugeta Admasu Delele
author_facet Fikrte Woldeyes Hailu
Solomon Workneh Fanta
Alemayehu Ambaw Tsige
Mulugeta Admasu Delele
author_sort Fikrte Woldeyes Hailu
collection DOAJ
description This review examines colorimetric indicator packaging approaches for fresh fruit and vegetable (F&V) products, focusing on freshness monitoring, quality considerations, and potential future issues. Currently, consumers increasingly need to know F&V provenance and more information on quality and safety attributes. Methods for determining the freshness of F&V were created to reduce consumer use of expired F&V. Due to their short shelf lives, F&Vs have experienced numerous physiologic, chemical, and biological changes throughout time. These techniques altered their perception of quality, safety, and freshness. Today, F&V can be tracked along with their qualities and storage life through the supply chain using colorimetric freshness indicators. Those indicators detect pH, gas, temperature, humidity, and microbial activity from F&V metabolites during storage. Of them, pH indicators displayed more active responses due to the F&V being past its expiration date. However, fresh F&V is not yet fully commercially usable for freshness monitoring systems. This is because the response of indicators for F&V was inferior when compared to protein-based foods such as fish and meat. The basic problem is that the released metabolites of F&V during storage, such as carbon dioxide, cannot easily make the environment a stronger acid for indicator detection than ammonia metabolites from protein foods. On the other hand, most indicators are developed from synthetic dyes and polymers, which could be a reason for health effects, while natural dyes and biopolymers do not effectively detect the target metabolites and withstand moisture. In the future, an additional study must be done on various freshness monitoring systems and their widespread use with fresh F&V.
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spelling doaj-art-ea7609e8fde74964ac8e8ef5ac01a0862025-08-20T03:04:58ZengWileyJournal of Food Quality1745-45572025-01-01202510.1155/jfq/6669828Current Status and Challenges of Colorimetric Intelligent Packaging for Fruit and Vegetables: A ReviewFikrte Woldeyes Hailu0Solomon Workneh Fanta1Alemayehu Ambaw Tsige2Mulugeta Admasu Delele3Faculty of Chemical and Food EngineeringFaculty of Chemical and Food EngineeringDepartment of Horticultural ScienceFaculty of Chemical and Food EngineeringThis review examines colorimetric indicator packaging approaches for fresh fruit and vegetable (F&V) products, focusing on freshness monitoring, quality considerations, and potential future issues. Currently, consumers increasingly need to know F&V provenance and more information on quality and safety attributes. Methods for determining the freshness of F&V were created to reduce consumer use of expired F&V. Due to their short shelf lives, F&Vs have experienced numerous physiologic, chemical, and biological changes throughout time. These techniques altered their perception of quality, safety, and freshness. Today, F&V can be tracked along with their qualities and storage life through the supply chain using colorimetric freshness indicators. Those indicators detect pH, gas, temperature, humidity, and microbial activity from F&V metabolites during storage. Of them, pH indicators displayed more active responses due to the F&V being past its expiration date. However, fresh F&V is not yet fully commercially usable for freshness monitoring systems. This is because the response of indicators for F&V was inferior when compared to protein-based foods such as fish and meat. The basic problem is that the released metabolites of F&V during storage, such as carbon dioxide, cannot easily make the environment a stronger acid for indicator detection than ammonia metabolites from protein foods. On the other hand, most indicators are developed from synthetic dyes and polymers, which could be a reason for health effects, while natural dyes and biopolymers do not effectively detect the target metabolites and withstand moisture. In the future, an additional study must be done on various freshness monitoring systems and their widespread use with fresh F&V.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/jfq/6669828
spellingShingle Fikrte Woldeyes Hailu
Solomon Workneh Fanta
Alemayehu Ambaw Tsige
Mulugeta Admasu Delele
Current Status and Challenges of Colorimetric Intelligent Packaging for Fruit and Vegetables: A Review
Journal of Food Quality
title Current Status and Challenges of Colorimetric Intelligent Packaging for Fruit and Vegetables: A Review
title_full Current Status and Challenges of Colorimetric Intelligent Packaging for Fruit and Vegetables: A Review
title_fullStr Current Status and Challenges of Colorimetric Intelligent Packaging for Fruit and Vegetables: A Review
title_full_unstemmed Current Status and Challenges of Colorimetric Intelligent Packaging for Fruit and Vegetables: A Review
title_short Current Status and Challenges of Colorimetric Intelligent Packaging for Fruit and Vegetables: A Review
title_sort current status and challenges of colorimetric intelligent packaging for fruit and vegetables a review
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/jfq/6669828
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