Abstract

An increasing demand of natural preservatives to increase the storage life of fresh-cut fruits and vegetables has received a great attention among researchers. The present study was conducted to evaluate quality retention and shelf-life improvement of fresh-cut apple, papaya, carrot and cucumber by chitosan-soy based edible coating. The examination of different parameters like weight-loss, soluble solids, pH, titratable acidity, color, total phenol content, ascorbic acid, browning potential and polyphenol oxidase activity was carried out to determine the quality of samples. A substantial difference was recorded in the weight-loss of coated samples when compared with controls. The chitosan-soy coating delayed the polyphenol oxidase activity and enzymatic browning in the samples. The study concluded that chitosan-soy coating has the ability to improve quality and prolong shelf-life, and could be used commercially for fresh-cut stuffs of fruits and vegetables.

Keywords: Ascorbic acid, carotenoids, chitosan-soy, Daucus carota, polyphenol oxidase, total phenol content.

Graphical Abstract