Revolutionizing the Fruit Value Chain: Smart Packaging Innovations for Postharvest Storage, Preservation, and Quality Enhancement

Abstract

Postharvest losses of fresh fruits remain a persistent challenge to global food security and the economic sustainability of horticultural supply chains. Despite advances in storage and preservation technologies, maintaining fruit quality throughout increasingly complex value chains remains constrained by physiological deterioration, microbial spoilage, and inefficient postharvest management. Smart packaging has emerged as a promising strategy to complement conventional preservation approaches by integrating active functions, intelligent sensing, and sustainable materials into a unified postharvest management system. This review provides a comprehensive synthesis of recent advances in smart packaging technologies and examines their potential to transform fruit value chains from harvest to consumption. Attention is given to active packaging systems for ethylene scavenging, antimicrobial protection, moisture regulation, and modified atmosphere management, alongside intelligent packaging technologies incorporating freshness indicators, time–temperature indicators, gas sensors, and Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled monitoring for real-time quality assessment and traceability. Beyond individual technologies, the review highlights how the integration of smart packaging with cold-chain logistics, digital monitoring, and value chain coordination can reduce postharvest losses, preserve physicochemical, nutritional, and sensory quality, and improve supply chain resilience. Current challenges associated with commercial implementation, including material performance, scalability, regulatory compliance, cost-effectiveness, consumer acceptance, and end-of-life sustainability, are critically evaluated. The review further identifies key research gaps in the design of multifunctional, biodegradable, and data-driven packaging platforms capable of simultaneously monitoring, preserving, and predicting fruit quality. Finally, future perspectives are presented on the convergence of advanced functional materials, nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, and circular economy principles to enable next-generation smart packaging systems. Integrating these innovations across the horticultural value chain offers a pathway toward resilient, low-waste, and sustainable postharvest systems that enhance fruit quality, resource efficiency, and food security.