The demand for safe, minimally processed, ‘fresh’ food products presents major challenges to the food-packaging industry to develop packaging concepts for maintaining the safety and quality of packaged foods. Recent outbreaks of foodborne pathogens such as Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella spp. and Listeria monocytogenes continue to push for innovative ways to inhibit microbial growth in foods while maintaining quality, freshness and safety. As an additional hurdle to non-thermal processes, antimicrobial packaging can play an important role at reducing the risk of pathogen contamination of minimally processed foods. Antimicrobial packaging systems incorporate antimicrobials into the packaging to prevent microbial growth on the surface of solid foods and to reduce the need for excessive antimicrobials in liquid foods. Currently, food application of an antimicrobial packaging system is limited due to the availability of suitable antimicrobials, new polymer materials, regulatory concerns and appropriate testing methods.