Although signi fi cant research progress has been made, antimicrobial packaging has had limited commercial success except for silver based antimicrobial materials which are common in countries such as Japan and USA. The use of silver based antimicrobials are expected to grow in Europe after their inclusion in the provisional list of additives for use in food contact materials and in the list of surface biocides in the framework of the Biocides Product Regulation (European Commission,
2011, 2012b). An important number of antimicrobial silver-based masterbatches are available in the market