Packaging plays a critical role in food safety and quality.  Packaging prevents contamination of food from pathogens, spoilage organisms, chemical and physical hazards and intentional tampering.  It also provides an opportunity and platform to convey important information to consumers. Beyond food safety and quality, pertinent information such as safe handling and cooking procedures, sell by or use by dates, and ingredient lists can all be delivered as additional important benefits. Of special note, packaging can control the atmosphere that is present inside of the package and so inhibit unwanted microbial growth.  Packages can even function as cooking vessels for food and thus minimize the handling of the food during preparation. Clearly, food packaging does a lot to protect the global food supply, but can it do more?  One concept that has been studied extensively is the idea of packaging that exerts an active antimicrobial effect on organisms that may be present on the food inside the package via incorporation of antimicrobial agents or processes into the package itself. This symposium will showcase antimicrobial packaging and some of the difficulties encountered when attempting to exert an antimicrobial effect on the entirety of a packaged food via the package itself.  The regulations that pertain to such processes will be presented, as will the latest technologies for incorporating antimicrobial agents into the package.  Finally, technologies that may be able to provide a non-thermal antimicrobial process through a sealed package will be highlighted.

Presentations