Nanocomposite sensors for food packaging

Nowadays nanotechnologies applied to the food packagingsector find always more applications due to a wide range of benefits that they can offer, such as improved barrier properties, improved mechanical performance, antimicrobial properties and so on. Recently many researches are addressed to the set up of new food packagingmaterials, in which polymer nanocomposites incorporate nanosensors, developing the so-called "smart" packaging. Some examples of nanocomposite sensors specifically realised forthe food packagingindustry are reported. The second part of this work deals with the preparation and characterisation of two new polymer-based nanocomposite systems that can be used as food packagingmaterials. Particularly the results concerning the following systems are illustrated: isotactic polypropylene (iPP) filled with CaCO(3) nanoparticles and polycaprolactone (PCL) filled with SiO(2) nanoparticles.