A bibliometric analysis of understanding absorbent food for the development of sustainable packaging

Absorbent packaging is a form of food packaging designed to absorb excess liquid and moisture that may be present in food products. This article provides a bibliometric analysis of the literature on food-absorbent packaging. The analysis was conducted using the Scopus database, and 121 documents were selected for the study. According to the study’s findings, the number of publications on food absorbent packaging has grown over time. As productive countries, the majority of the investigations were undertaken in China, the United States, and Brazil. The study also revealed that the most popular absorbent food packaging research topics are developing new materials, optimizing packaging performance, and evaluating the effectiveness of absorbent packaging in preserving food quality. In addition, a number of emerging research topics were identified, such as the application of nanotechnology to absorbent packaging and the development of biodegradable absorbent materials. This bibliometric analysis sheds light on the current state of absorbent food packaging research and identifies potential areas for future study. Researchers, food industry professionals, and policymakers can use the findings of this study to develop and implement more effective and environmentally favorable food packaging solutions.


Introduction
Microbial growth in food is a common issue in the food industry and is one of the greatest challenges confronting the global health community as well as a significant threat to human health.[1][2][3].Microbial growth in food is a common issue in the food industry and is one of the greatest challenges confronting the global health community as well as a significant threat to human health.In recent years, researchers have explored various approaches to addressing this issue, including the creation of active packaging for sustainably packaged foods [4,5].Active packaging is a form of food packaging that is intended to serve additional purposes in addition to containing food products.Active packaging can absorb oxygen, release antimicrobials, and increase the expiration life of food products [6,7].In addition to active packaging, the food industry is also developing absorbent food packaging to maintain the quality of food products.
In addition to active packaging, the food industry is developing absorbent food packaging to preserve product quality.Absorbent food packaging is designed to absorb excess liquid or moisture that may be present in food products, so as to extend the shelf life of the product.Absorbent food packaging can also help prevent bacterial growth and maintain the organoleptic quality of food products, so as to increase the attractiveness of products in the market [8,9].
Finding materials that are safe and environmentally favorable is one of the difficulties of developing active packaging.Some sorbents used in active packaging can be harmful if accidentally consumed by humans.Therefore, researchers and food packaging manufacturers need to consider these factors in the development of active packaging technologies [10,11].In bibliometric research, an analysis can be conducted to identify the most frequently used ingredients in active packaging and food absorbent packaging and the existing research trends in the use of these ingredients.
Bibliometric research on food absorbent packaging as an active packaging development can make an important contribution in accelerating the development of active packaging technology that can absorb and help meet the food and beverage industry's demand for more effective and environmentally friendly packaging.In addition, bibliometric research can also help in identifying gaps and shortcomings in the research that has already been done, so that it can provide direction for future research in the development of better and more effective active packaging.In bibliometric research on food absorbent packaging as a development of active packaging, existing scientific publications, such as journal articles, conferences, and books, can be analyzed to understand research trends and countries' contributions to the development of active absorbent packaging technology.Thus, bibliometric research can make an important contribution to the development of active absorbent packaging, so as to improve the effectiveness of food packaging and help reduce food waste.

Method
This study aims to trace the research trends on absorbent for food packaging from 1988 to 2022 using bibliometric analysis of research articles retrieved from the SCOPUS database using the keyword combination "food absorbent" and "Packaging" for bibliometric analysis.In addition, we restricted the inclusion of final papers submitted by May 03, 2023.Any modifications made after that date are not taken into account in this review.Figure 1 depicts an overview of the collected data, which comprised 121 documents.The documents include a variety of categories, including articles (n=97), reviews (n=10), conference papers (n=8), and book chapters (n=6).Figure 1 illustrates the mechanism for selecting the examined documents.

Bibliometric analysis from Vosviewer
Through bibliometric analysis, we can identify the most influential articles or authors in a field of research, as well as analyze the relationship between interrelated topics in scientific publications [12][13][14].Using this technique, researchers can gain deeper insights into the trends and dynamics in a particular research field, and take appropriate steps to enhance their contribution to the field.Bibliometric analysis generally features the analysis of published information such as books, journal articles and journal reviews as well as data sets and metadata using statistics to describe or show the relationship between published works.

Keyword analysis
There are 358 keywords that the authors use the most frequently, with at least three co-occurrences, 24 met the requirement, which divided into three clusters with cluster keywords detailed in Table 1 and the connection which presented in Figure 1.  1 revealed that in all clusters the keywords presented in very much close to absorbent packaging especially with the present of the word "packaging" namely food packaging, packaging, and active packaging in cluster 2 and 3 and the present of word "absorbent" in the cluster 1 and 2 including ethylene absorbent and absorbent pads.Of all clusters the connection is strong to each other and is difficult to differentiate between one another.Nevertheless, it is interesting to notice that the word "banana" in cluster 1 "nanotechnology" in cluster 2 and "chaunsa mango and fruit" in cluster 3 suspected that the application of natural compound like fruits with the support of technological enhancement like nanotechnology has been a great combination in the application of absorbent pads to extend the shelflife of food product.

Figure 2. Co-occurrence network of food absorbent packaging research-related keywords
The connection of keywords can be seen in figure 2. Each circle represents a keyword, in which the size of the circle indicates the frequency of the keyword, the line between the circles indicates that they appear together in a publication, and different colors indicate different clusters.It is noticed from the figure that the words "packaging, absorbent pads, and shelf life" appear as the three biggest cycle means the higher frequency.That is because the packaging and absorbent pads is the main keywords used in search and it is related with one of the main functions of packaging which is extending the shelf life of product.Analysis of bibliometric data in the field of food absorbent packaging in foods has revealed some potential for future research.These potentials are based on a visual representation of keywords that cooccur over a period of time (as depicted in Figure 3).Note that newly emerging keywords are shown as yellow nodes in the graph, indicating their current prevalence in research and potential for further collaboration with other related keywords.Such collaborations can lead to useful new insights and advancements.
In figure 3 we can see that the word packaging has been appear in 2010.It is interesting to notice two words that appear most recent which were antimicrobial and hydrogel.Both terms are related to advances in the field of packaging, Antimicrobial materials are being developed to help prevent contamination, while hydrogels are being investigated as a potential replacement for packaging materials.Hydrogels are considered an ideal material for various food applications as they have elasticity, good absorbent properties and flexibility properties [15].Of these two terms, hydrogels are particularly interesting.Hydrogels are three-dimensional networks of polymer chains that are capable of absorbing and retaining large amounts of water.This property makes them an ideal choice in packaging, as they can preserve the freshness and quality of perishable goods by creating a moist environment.Researchers are therefore exploring the potential applications of hydrogels in various packaging scenarios, ranging from food packaging to medical device packaging.Although the technology is still in its early stages of development, the use of hydrogels in various food applications has significant potential [15].Based on data exported from the Scopus database using the initial search of the keywords food absorbent and "packaging" during 1988-2022, The geographical distribution of research is plotted and shown in Figure 5.As seen in the map, countries such as China, the United States and Brazil are seen to produce the most research in the field of food absorbents with the keywords used in the Scopus database search.These studies cover a wide range of topics, from the ingredients used in the manufacture of food absorbents, to the uses and applications of these products.China, the United States and Brazil have a lot of research on food absorbents probably because these three countries have large and growing food industries with very large populations and these countries have strong research environments that encourage innovation and technological development, including in the food industry.
This shows that these countries can be a valuable source of information for researchers in developing further studies in the field of food absorbent packaging.Therefore, this study can be an important reference for researchers in this field to direct their attention to the latest research being conducted in these countries, as well as to enhance international cooperation in research and development in the field of food absorbent packaging.However, it should be noted that bibliometric analysis only provides an overview of the number of publications and countries involved in the field of food absorbents.It cannot be ascertained whether these studies actually produce significant findings or merely repeat previous findings.Therefore, further analysis is needed to evaluate the quality of these studies.

Limitation
This bibliometric study has several limitations.First, although SCOPUS is the most widely used search database, it is inevitable that there are some articles that are not covered.Secondly, due to the continuous updating of the database, there are some gaps in the data obtained, such as the number of articles, citations, and h-index.Thirdly, the quality of the articles collected in this study is uneven, which may also affect the reliability of this study.

Conclusion
Bibliometric research on food-absorbent packaging shows an increase in the number of publications over time, with most studies conducted in countries such as China, the United States, and Brazil.The most popular research topics in food absorbent packaging are the development of new materials, optimization of packaging performance, and evaluation of the efficacy of absorbent packaging in maintaining food quality.The research findings also identified some emerging research topics, such as the application of nanotechnology to absorbent packaging and the development of biodegradable absorbent materials.This bibliometric analysis provides an overview of the current state of research on food absorbent packaging and can provide direction for future research in the development and application of more effective and environmentally friendly food packaging solutions.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Illustrates the mechanism for selecting the examined documents.

Figure 3 .
Figure 3. Evolution of the co-occurrence network for certain terms from 2010 to 2020.

Figure 4 .
Figure 4. Geographical distribution of publications on food absorbent packaging from 1988 to 2022.

Table 1 .
Cluster of keywords analysis on Bibliometric software.