inclusion of the active agents, be they antioxidants, antimicrobials or any other, within the packaging material gives rise to active packaging. An active package was defined by Rooney (1995) as a material that “performs a role other than an inert barrier to the outside environment”. The aim of the active packaging is to increase the display life of contained products maintaining their quality, safety and sensory properties, without direct addition of the active agents to the product. Developments in antimicrobial active packaging have been reported (Appendini and Hotchkiss, 2002 and Quintavalla and Vicini, 2002), but studies on antioxidant active packaging are rarer. Nerín et al. (2006) described the promising results of a new antioxidant active packaging system; a plastic film with an embodied rosemary extract was able to inhibit both myoglobin and lipid oxidation in beef, leading to enhanced display life of meat.
The aim of this work was to investigate and compare the effect of two natural antioxidants (rosemary and oregano extracts) incorporated to an active package filled with a modified atmosphere on the display life of lamb steaks.