The increasing demand for fresh fish food products has led to a rise in food packaging solutions, and the use of antimicrobial absorbent pads is becoming increasingly popular. The growing concerns regarding food safety and hygiene including the unnecessary food waste in developed countries have led to the development of new innovative solutions to keep the fish food safe and fresh for longer. Our company aims to introduce in the fresh fish packaging industry a multi-functional biodegradable Antimicrobial absorbent Fish PAD (AFPAD) system that contains a combination of two safe inorganic compounds that are activated only when they come into contact with aqueous-based fish exudates and can eliminate bacteria or inhibit their growth by releasing three antimicrobial agents: peracetic acid (PAA), hydrogen peroxide (HP) and carbon dioxide (CO2); and the oxidative gas: oxygen (O2). The antimicrobials PAA & HP released, can kill most of the bacteria collected in the pad, while eliminating bad odours caused by the spoilage of the fish exudates absorbed. The CO2 gas will act as an inhibitor for the bacteria growing on the fresh fish surface and the O2 gas will help to maintain its freshness for longer. AFPAD system is designed to absorb the fish exudates released in the package, hence making the food more presentable to the consumer and simultaneously prevent bacterial growth, ensuring food safety and extending the shelf-life of the fresh fish products. The antimicrobial compounds are confined in the pad and will not come in contact with the fish products for safety. The antioxidants formed in the pad are breaking down into safe/inert secondary bio-products that can be used as bacteriostatic and oxidative gases in vacuum sealed or modified atmosphere packaging. AFPAD system will additionally contribute to the reduction of fresh fish food waste worldwide and it will be developed with only safe and biodegradable materials, hence making it a sustainable and eco-friendly solution in the packaging industry.

Introduction: In our days, food waste, food safety and antimicrobial resistance are huge global priorities, that need to be addressed urgently as global seafood consumption has been increasing dramatically over the last decade. The basic functions of packaging of fresh fish are carried out to avoid contamination, dis-coloration, delay spoilage, permit some enzymatic activity to improve tenderness, and reduce weight loss at retail or customer level. Due to the diversity of product characteristics and basic fish packaging demands and applications, any packaging technologies offering to deliver more product and quality control in an economic and diverse manner would be favorably welcomed. Active packaging is an innovative packaging system/technology that allows the product and its environment to interact in order to extend the shelf life and/or to ensure food microbial safety, while maintaining the quality of the packaged food.

Our team developed an innovative active and controlled release biodegradable antimicrobial pad for food packaging applications, that can increase the food shelf life, prevent food waste and decrease the packaging costs. The pad incorporates two chemical compounds, that when they come in contact with liquid, they release two antioxidant agents and gases. Therefore, this pad will be able to eliminate pathogenic organisms and spoilage (including resistant ones) and inhibit the pathogen’s growth. Also, the release of the gases through chemical reactions can prevent the pathogenic organism’s growth and decrease the food packaging costs (no need to infuse mix gas mixtures directly into the MAP food packages).

The two chemical compounds will be added to the pad and then will be enclosed with a one-way perforated biodegradable film, which will act as a barrier between the pad and the product for safety concerns. The exuded liquids of the packaged product will flow freely through or around the barrier and get absorbed by the pad. When this food liquid exudes come in contact with the compounds within the pad, their antimicrobial action will be activated by slowly releasing the two antioxidant agents in a controlled and sustained way. However, these two agents are unstable in aqueous environment, they decompose over time to bio-safe products such as water, oxygen, and carbon dioxide.

AFPAD Advantages

• Extends packaged fish shelf-life & freshness
• Improves packaged fish appearance
• Extends fish quality and safety
• Prevents antimicrobial resistance
• Reduces food waste & spoilage (environmentally friendly)
• Cheap CO2 and O2 gas generator
• Supplement MAP process to increase its efficacy

Results: The results below show the antimicrobial difference between the commercial pads and the AFPA

Figure 1: Total Viable Count of pathogenic bacteria mixture in 20% fish substitute serum solution

To sum up, the AFPAD is better than the commercially available pads, as it combines multiple advantages and technologies into a single antimicrobial system. According to the experimental data it can increase the shelf-life of the fish for at least one day. Therefore, it can be considered as an all-in-one multi-functional antimicrobial system for the active packaging industry. AFPAD can become a competitive innovate product that can penetrate quickly the fish packaging global industry and acquire a significant share

Figure 2: The multi-functional biodegradable AFPAD system and its antimicrobial action.

Conclusions: The AFPAD system can successfully extend the shelf-life and the quality characteristics of sealed packaged fish fillets by eliminating completely all bacteria collected/grown in the AFPAD system, while inhibiting the bacteria growth on the fish product surface.

Sponsors

Το  Έργο “ENTERPRISES/0223/Sub-Call1/0112 – AFPAD” υπάγετε κάτω από το σχέδιο ‘Έξυπνη ανάπτυξη – Έρευνα στις επιχειρήσεις’ που συγχρηματοδοτείται από το Ευρωπαϊκό Ταμείο Περιφερειακής Ανάπτυξης και την Κυπριακή Δημοκρατία μέσω του Ιδρύματος Έρευνας και Καινοτομίας.