Systematic Applications of Metal-Organic Frameworks in Food Packaging: A Review

Food packaging plays a crucial role in maintaining food quality and reducing food waste during food preservation and transportation. Traditional packaging typically only allows for simple, short-term food storage. Then novel packaging materials are needed to meet the demands of food production and distribution. Incorporating metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) into food packaging materials can impart new functionalities and properties, such as antioxidant, antimicrobial, and responsive detection capabilities. Researchers can develop various novel food packaging materials based on MOFs, achieving product safety objectives. This paper first introduces the structural features and design flexibility of MOFs, summarizes diverse synthesis methods, along with classification systems based on metal, ligands, and topological structures. The three primary mechanisms of MOFs in food packaging are emphasized: enhancing material properties through structural regulation and surface modification, stabilizing loaded active substances, and enabling environmentally responsive controlled release of active substances. The review further analyzes specific applications of MOFs in packaging for fruits, vegetables, poultry and livestock meat, and aquatic products through case studies. Then, building upon existing achievements, this review identifies challenges in stability, safety, and cost that MOFs materials face during industrialization in food packaging, while also outlining future development directions to provide theoretical reference for related research.