Edible coating for fruit preservation
Researchers have presented a new way of strawberry preservation by using a combination of yam bean starch, essential oil, and calcium propionate.
During the study, the effect of edible coatings made from yam bean starch (ST), agarwood bouya essential oil (ES), and calcium propionate (CP) on strawberry fruit in cold storage for 16 days was investigated. Strawberries coated with four different coating formulations and uncoated fruits were packed in sealed containers and stored at 4 °C with 85 % of humidity.
Maintainung quality
Antifungal evaluation was conducted on the coating solution (membrane permeability and germination of Botrytis cinerea) and edible film (microstructure analysed using atomic force microscopy), as well as testing at 4-day intervals on fresh fruit (weight loss, surface colour, firmness, microstructure using scanning electron microscopy, and antifungal activity) and physicochemical analysis of strawberry juice (total soluble solid, citric acid, ascorbic acid, pH, and titratable acidity). Each result was then tested using TOPSIS-Shannon entropy analysis. From these tests, the edible coating treatment with ST-ES was the best treatment in this study and better than fruit without coating, demonstrating that the coating was able to maintain the quality of strawberries during storage.
The study has been published in Progress in Organic Coatings, Volume 175, February 2023.
