Enhancing postharvest quality of fresh-cut plums with chitosan-grape seed oil edible coatings

Abstract

Edible coatings are traditionally used to improve food appearance and conservation due to their environmentally friendly nature. In this study fresh cut (halved and pitted) plum (var. Stanley) fruits were coated by chitosan grape-seed-oil (GsO) nanoemulsion. Physical, physico-chemical, microbiological and sensorial properties were examined 3 times during 9 d refrigeration storage. The control probes wasted their safety and quality after the 4th d. The coated probes preserved their quality and safety to the end of the storage period. The fruits with chitosan coating showed smaller microbiological contamination but the chitosan GsO coated fruits showed higher values in the sensorial parameters. The coated samples preserved their sensorial parameters up to 80% on the 9th d.