Shelf-life studies of sliced cooked ham packaged in polylactic acid (PLA) trays with oxygen scavengers

The novel trend in food packaging is the extension of the shelf-life by means of mild technologies. This trend faces the challenge to offer “fresh like” foods products with reasonable shelf-lives and high global quality level. The reduction of food durability, however, determines a high impact of plastic packages on the urban waste management, because of their short life cycle. A possible solution to this problem could be the use of biodegradable/compostable packaging materials, obtained from annually renewable crops. Poly lactic acid (PLA) is one of the most promising compostable materials. In this work, the refrigerated shelf-life of sliced cooked ham packaged in PLA with Active device and different initial atmosphere modifications was evaluated.