Enhancement of strawberry shelf life with coating: A review

Abstract

Komalpreet Kaur* and Anil Kumar

As the world population is increasing and the requirements for the fruits and vegetables is also increasing all around the world. According to year 2018, fruit production has reached up to 7.1 million tonnes. Food stocks can be increased for future generations. Supply of food and accessibility can be increased by increasing demand, improving delivery, and reducing losses. Fruit’s perishable nature makes it susceptible to loss in post-harvested crops, particularly when it distributed for long distance. Applying coating to the fruit will help to reduce the amount of impoverishment. Different types of post-harvest coatings applied on fruits e.g. bananas, strawberries, mangoes, pineapples, and avocados which prolongs the storage survival, loss of water, chilling injuries loss. To satisfy the supply needs of future generations, food processing industries must prevent postharvest losses. To overcome these problems, number of techniques used to preserve the food product for longer duration of time. Methods like heat treatments, cold storage, coating, Nano emulsion, Nano technology etc. are the most popular around the world. Using the different types of additives in incorporated with the edible coating makes the food product more appealing, nutritious, inhibits microbial growth, increase the storage life. Several foods have been coated for enhancing these qualities into them. Whereas, it is also use in the bakery and confectionery industries. These films help to maintain the physical and chemical properties of fresh and highly processed fruits for a longer duration. This analysis demonstrates that edible film is a great method for extending tropical fruit's post-harvest life. Despite the research focus, further work is required, especially to better predict the process of biopolymer products until ingestion in order to provide a safe film for consumer use. With the help of this article, processors would be able to use this knowledge to choose the right coating material and density for various processed foods.