Antimicrobial and Antioxidants Capacities: Application in Food Packaging

Dear Colleagues,

Food spoilage caused by microorganisms’ activity is the most established cause of food degradation, making food unsafe for consumption and increasing food waste. The food packaging paradigm has changed, particularly in consumer demands, and, together with ecological concerns, researchers have been challenged to develop sustainable materials with an added value function.

The development of packaging with antimicrobial and antioxidant properties is a promising way to actively control both bacterial and fungal proliferation and oxidation that leads to food spoilage, resulting in an increase in shelf life. Methods of producing packaging with antimicrobial activity range from adding sachets with volatile antimicrobial agents up to the incorporation of active agents directly into the polymer matrix or coating/grafting antimicrobial substances onto the packaging surface. Active compounds with biological capacities can be obtained from many different sources, either natural or synthetic.

Knowing that antimicrobial and antioxidant packaging remains a very important and challenging product technology, this Special Issue is open to contributions of original research articles and high-quality review articles related to the use of antioxidants and antimicrobial agents in food packaging. These include, but are not limited to, the following research topics:

• Polymers and biopolymers processing.
• Synthesis or extraction of antioxidant and antimicrobial agents.
• Coating or encapsulation of antioxidant and antimicrobial agents.
• Cytotoxicity of matrix polymer/active agents.
• Antioxidant and antimicrobial films from natural and synthetic sources.
• Technological approaches on the evaluation of active food packaging systems.
• Production processes of active packaging through green chemistry approaches.
• Packing polymers as protecting barriers.

Dr. M. Cidalia R. Castro
Dr. Ana Vera A. MacHado
Guest Editors

Dr. Pedro V. Rodrigues
Guest Editor Assistant

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Antioxidants is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• active packaging
• antimicrobial properties
• antioxidant properties
• (bio)polymers processing
• coating/encapsulation of active agents
• shelf-life