Food Science and Technology Research, 24 (6), 949 _ 962, 2018 Copyright © 2018, Japanese Society for Food Science and Technology doi: 10.3136/fstr.24.949 http://www.jsfst.or.jp Review Application of Active Edible Coatings to Improve the Shelf-life of Cheese Niloofar Bagheripoor 1 , Sadegh Khoshgozaran-aBras 2 , Sara sohraBvandi 3* , Nasim Khorshidian 4 , Amir Mohammad Mortazavian 5,6* , Neda MollaKhalili 1 and Sahar Jazaeri 6 1 Student Research Committee, Department of Food Technology, National Nutrition and Food Technology Research Institute, Faculty of Nutrition Sciences and Food Technology, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran 2 Department of Food Science and Technology, Faculty of Agriculture, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran 3 Department of Food Technology Research, National Nutrition and Food Technology Research Institute, Faculty of Nutrition Sciences and Food Technology, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran 4 Food Safety Research Center (Salt), School of Nutrition and Food Sciences, Semnan University of Medical Sciences, Semnan, Iran 5 Food Safety Research center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran 6 Department of Food Technology, National Nutrition and Food Technology Research Institute, Faculty of Nutrition Sciences and Food Technology, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Received September 7, 2017 ; Accepted October 12, 2017 Milk and dairy products are staples of the human diet. Among them, cheese holds an important stance. Due to its biological and biochemically dynamic nature, cheese is a perishable product in need of innovative preservation methods. There have been an increasing trends for the application of natural-derived edible flms/coatings and natural preservatives to extend its shelf-life. The present review focuses on the application of edible coatings and highlights their potential for prolonging the shelf-life up to one month, depending on the types of cheese, its antimicrobial type, and environmental conditions such as storage temperature. Keywords: cheese, edible flm/coating, shelf life, antimicrobial *To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: Sara Sohrabvandi; sohrabv@sbmu.ac.ir Amir Mohammad Mortazavian; mortazvn@sbmu.ac.ir Introduction Cheese is a well-known name for a category of fermented milk-based foodstuff, which besides microorganisms, mainly consists of casein, fat, and water. Cheese is a biochemically and biologically unstable food product (Ferrão et al., 2016; Karimi et al., 2011a; Karimi et al., 2011b). It is exposed to a variety of chemical and microbial deteriorations during processing and storage. The surfaces of cheeses are prone to contamination by microorganisms due to their high water activity and suitable acidity conditions (Proulx et al., 2015) and one of the most favorable strategies to prolong cheese shelf life and enhance its quality is packaging. The packaging process exerts some basic functions including minimizing chemical, biochemical, physical and microbiological deterioration and increasing the handling and marketing of food products (Khoshgozaran et al., 2012). However, synthetic packaging films have induced serious ecological problems due to their non-biodegradability. In this context, edible films and coatings have gained remarkable attention in recent years because of their advantages compared to conventional packaging. Edible flms and coatings are produced exclusively from natural and renewable sources and if not consumed along with the food, degrade more easily than polymeric packaging. In some cases they can improve the sensory properties of foods through carrying flavoring or colorant agents. Furthermore, they can be used as vehicles to deliver antioxidant or antimicrobial agents and control the release of these substances is possible (Bourtoom, 2008;