Natural Additives in Food and Sustainable Packaging: Innovations and Applications

This book explores the present era of globalized food supply chains, associated complexities, and concerns over maintaining food quality and safety. It deepens the knowledge on technological innovations and applications of natural additives in foods and their applications in sustainable packaging to ensure food safety and quality. It acts as a tool to plan for further developments in this emerging area of importance and aims to address consumers’ demands for minimally processed food without additives or preservatives and meet the pressure of sustainable packaging products. Compared to other books, this book exclusively focuses on the contemporary developments and prospective advancements in the use of natural food additives in sustainable packaging (active and intelligent agent) systems. The chapters represent a systematic, sequential account of current research and developments in this emerging area, covering all the major topics of the advancements and applications of natural food additives in foods and their sustainable packaging. The book will assist the academic community (teachers, researchers, and students), industry personnel, and other related stakeholders engaged in this field.

Santosh Kumar is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Food Engineering and Technology, Central Institute of Technology Kokrajhar, Assam, India. He earned his MTech and PhD degrees from the Department of Food Technology and Biochemical Engineering, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India. He also worked as a postdoctoral fellow for 1 year at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden, in 2018–19. Dr Kumar has more than 14 years of teaching and research experience in sustainable food systems, mainly focusing on innovative and sustainable food preservation techniques, active and intelligent food packaging systems, edible films and coatings, and valorization of agri-food waste. He has authored/edited more than 70 publications, including 50 peer-reviewed journal papers, 4 books, and 21 book chapters.

Avik Mukherjee is an Associate Professor at the Department of Food Engineering and Technology, Central Institute of Technology Kokrajhar, Assam, India. He earned his MS and PhD degrees in Food Science from the University of Minnesota, USA, and then worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Meat Safety and Quality, Colorado State University, USA. Dr Mukherjee has 18 years of teaching and research experience, and his areas of research include microbial food safety, sustainable and novel food preservation, and packaging. He has published articles in nearly 40 international peer-reviewed journals and co-authored and/or co-edited 9 books and 16 book chapters.

Rajeev Bhat is a Professor at the Chair of Food Science & Technology, Estonian University of Life Sciences, Estonia. Since 2019, he has held the prestigious position of professor and ERA chair-holder for Food (By-)Products Valorisation Technologies (VALORTECH) in the same institution. Prof. Bhat has research and teaching experience of more than two decades in agri-food technology, with expertise in sustainable food production and food security. He has extensively worked internationally, including India, South Korea, Malaysia, Germany, Fiji Islands, and now Estonia. He has also been a visiting scientist/professor in many countries and a recipient of several international recognitions. He has published nearly 300 research articles in ISI-WOS-based journals and as refereed book chapters. He has also edited 13 books and authored 1 book.