**6. Conclusions and Future Perspective**

The review presented here summarized comprehensive available information on the recent development of antimicrobial packaging, especially in food packaging industries. This review introduced a brief background on the concept of antimicrobial packaging and their principles, followed by the main components of the antimicrobial packaging composition. The discussions were narrowly focused into the types of antimicrobial packaging, the applications, the implementations of recent discoveries, and strategies aiming to curb microbial growth through innovative antimicrobial packaging. Among the demonstrated potential applications, their massive use in food packaging has received considerable interest compared to others. The reviewed research work from the literature offers evidence in favor of antimicrobial packaging use to control food quality over targeted perishable products, generally, and the current plan to execute the mass production of antimicrobial packaging in real food systems, specifically. The antimicrobial packaging synergistically made of selected green polymers incorporated with certain chemical agents, natural agents, or probiotics have been shown to be effective to address issues on antimicrobial activity and plastic pollution towards sustainable development. The strong ground supported by the regulatory authorities, the commitments from industry players, and the growing public awareness are pacing the anticipation toward the use of antimicrobial packaging. The strategies of hybridizing those inexpensive, abundant natural polymers with functional additives will enhance the polymeric properties in order to satisfy the stringent requirement set by the packaging industry. At the time of writing, countless efforts were made to accelerate the mass production of antimicrobial packaging throughout technological advancement. However, there are a few challenges that are faced during the replacement transition from conventional petroleum-based plastic packaging towards antimicrobial packaging materials. The consideration towards the suitably formulated components between various antimicrobial agents and polymeric matrices needs to be really understood. For instance, some of the potential antimicrobial agents such as essential oils might also experience a high loss rate due to rapid volatilization due to several causes. Oxidative and polymerization processes may result in a loss of quality and pharmacological properties. A slow and sustained release of the essential oils will be useful to maintain food quality due to the presence of a high concentration of essential oils trapped in the packaging. Further, in-depth research is required to limit volatile loss and to sustain the durability and efficiency of the fabricated antimicrobial packaging materials at their optimum.

The advanced technology offered in the innovative antimicrobial packaging also has countered the resistance phenomenon in microbes to conventional processing technologies. Despite the excellent antimicrobial activity in controlling the microbial contamination by reducing the growth rate and extending the lag period of targeted foodborne pathogens, the depth of evaluation of the migration of active antimicrobial agents throughout the packaging needs to be accentuated. The importance of preventing the migration of active substances throughout the packaging materials has drawn attention from consumers and regulatory authorities, in regard to human health due to the fact that some can cause irritation due to cytotoxic effects while others can be allergens. Migration of undesirable substances must be strictly under the limit established by regulations to protect the safety of the consumers. For nanoparticles-embedded packaging, the specific toxicological tests are of the utmost necessity for future studies to clarify that prolonged consumption of packaged food from these innovative packaging materials are safe to humans, without longterm side effects. The application of nanoparticles into the food packaging needs to have a concise guide and should be carefully assessed prior to being available on the market. Despite having many outstanding properties and a realm of possibilities for antimicrobial agents for the packaging industry for retarding microbial growth and improving the shelf life of foods, more comprehensive research is still a requirement, considering the abovementioned limitations. Otherwise, the advantages of a prolonged shelf life may come at the expense of major unforeseen health repercussions.

Apart from that, the possible incoming threats to both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and the adverse effects of these antimicrobial substances-embedded packaging to long-term environmental impact should be considered. The disposal issue regarding the probability of the packaging containing nanoparticles and their subsequent breakdown, which could result in the release of unstable forms of chemical compounds into our natural ecosystems, should be highlighted. More future research should be focused on fully biodegradable polymers such as blends of starch and others for their high-efficiency usage in food packaging. Biopolymers are prominent candidates to be modified or combined with an antimicrobial substance to develop the antimicrobial systems with applications in several fields and in good directions to reach these goals.

**Author Contributions:** Writing—Reviewing and Editing, S.H.K., M.R., F.A., S.A., F.F., A.A.K., M.N.N., N.S., M.S.Z.M.D., M.S.M.B., H.S. and L.C.A. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** Not applicable.

**Informed Consent Statement:** Not applicable.

**Data Availability Statement:** The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author.

**Acknowledgments:** The authors gratefully acknowledge the technical and financial support from the Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM). This research was funded by IIUM-UMP-UiTM Sustainable Research Collaboration Grant 2020 (SRGC), 600-RMC/SRC/5/3 (035/2020).

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.

#### **References**

