Technological watch

Bioactive edible coatings are a promising thread in food packaging, allowing implementation of bioactive molecules, probiotics and prebiotics.Bioactive food packaging is a trend in food packaging science and technology, which is focused on the consumer's health benefits provided by the edible polymeric packaging and the inclusion of bioactive molecules of natural origin, probiotic microorganism and/or prebiotic molecules. Several types of edible films and bioactive molecules have been used in order to create bioactive molecules. In some cases, mechanical and barrier properties of the edible film are enhanced by the bioactive molecule. Likewise, inclusion of probiotics could also lead to enhanced properties of the film. This review will be useful to understand the different components and characteristics of the different types of bioactive films.