Essential oils could help increase shelf life

As consumers increasingly demand ‘natural’ products, the pressure to develop clean-label preservatives has increased. A new study outlines an existing product that could be used in a new way: essential oils.

Published in the Journal of Food Science, the study explains that essential oils may be suitable for use as food preservatives in packaging to help extend the shelf life of food products.

Essential oils are a good source of several bioactive compounds which possess antioxidative and antimicrobial properties.

Synthetic preservatives used in packaging present some risks, whereas essential oils can be used in this application as natural additives that extend products’ shelf life without posing any health risks, the authors say.

“Essential oils can be incorporated into packaging, in which they can provide multifunctions termed ‘active or smart packaging’,” the authors wrote. “Those essential oils are able to modify the matrix of packaging materials, thereby rendering the improved properties.”

Some benefits of using essential oils in packaging include:

• improving water-vapour barrier properties of protein-based films
• increasing the strength of the film and resistance to stretching
• decreasing transparency
• helping prevent food spoilage by interacting with the films’ other properties

The study is available here.