Active packaging for taste and aroma preservation in fresh fruits

Packaging plays a pivotal role in ensuring the physical protection of food products during storage, transportation and distribution, as well as facilitating their convenient handling ^[1].

After harvest, fresh fruits remain metabolically active, and their sensory quality continues to evolve throughout the supply chain. In packaged fruits, this evolution is shaped by the interaction between fruit physiology and the microenvironment created by packaging ^[2].

In a recent review article published in Foods by a team of researchers from Eversia, the Polytechnic University of Cartagena, Universidad Católica San Antonio de Murcia (UCAM), UCAM Agriculture and Climate Resilience Group, and the Institute of Natural Resources and Agrobiology of Seville, the authors, including IIR D1 commission member Ginés Benito Martínez-Hernández, examined the relationship between active packaging and the maintenance of fruit sensory quality.

Taste and aroma deterioration during refrigerated storage

In many fruits, low temperature slows visible deterioration but may also reduce the formation or release of key aroma volatiles, especially compounds associated with ripe-fruit identity.

Packaging that maintains firmness but allows the cold-induced depletion of key volatiles would extend commercial shelf life without preserving eating quality.

For example, postharvest chilling of melons can reduce the formation of volatile acetate esters which are essential to melon aroma.  Therefore, refrigeration may weaken the sensory character of the product even when visual quality remains acceptable.

Active packaging for optimum eating quality

Active packaging helps preserve fruit quality by regulating the packaging environment, contrary to passive packaging which acts only as a passive barrier against outside environment. It can absorb or release gases and other compounds to control oxygen and carbon dioxide levels, ethylene accumulation, moisture, microbial growth, oxidation, and the release of bioactive compounds. Its main benefits are extending shelf life, improving safety, reducing decay, limiting water loss, and maintaining overall fruit quality.

The researchers found that every active-packaging function has a dual effect on flavour.

In refrigerated storage, the package must maintain an atmosphere that slows respiration and microbial growth without imposing excessive O₂ limitation or CO₂ accumulation, while also controlling water vapour to avoid condensation.

The packaging system must therefore be selected according to fruit species, cultivar, maturity stage, respiration rate, climacteric or non-climacteric behaviour, cut status, storage temperature, expected temperature fluctuations, headspace volume, and product load.

Limitations of active packaging

Active packaging for fresh fruits should be validated within a safety window that includes technological efficacy, sensory compatibility, toxicological acceptability, food-contact compliance, and any applicable labelling or residue requirements.

This is particularly important for systems that release active substances into the package atmosphere or onto the fruit surface, including essential oils, plant-derived volatiles, SO2 emitters, ethanol emitters, antimicrobial coatings, active papers, active cardboard, polymeric films containing active agents, and edible coatings.

For more information, the article is available in open access in Foods.

Sources

[1] IIR, 2026. Recommendations for Chilled Storage of Perishable Produce. 5th edition. International Institute of Refrigeration (IIR), Paris. http://dx.doi.org/10.18462/iirguide.chilled.storage.5th.ed.11.2026

[2] Melgarejo-Martínez, P., López-Gómez, A., Acosta-Motos, J. R., Martínez-Hernández, G. B., Franco-Navarro, J. D., & Pérez-López, A. J. (2026). Active Packaging, Fruit Volatilome, and the Preservation of Taste and Aroma Quality in Fresh Fruits: A Review. Foods, 15(18), 3299. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods15183299