Polysaccharide Based Edible Coatings Influence the Biochemical Characteristics and Storage Behaviour of Tomato during Ambient Storage Bhatia Surekha*, Alam M S, Arora Maninder, Sehgal V K Department of Processing and Food Engineering, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana-141004, India *Author for correspondence: Email: surekhabhatia@pau.edu
Online published on 16 January, 2015. Abstract Three types of edible coatings i.e cellulose (CMC, 1.5% w/v), pectin (3% w/v) and starch (2% w/v) were tried on red stage tomatoes in order to extend the marketing period. Coating was applied by immersion method and tomatoes were placed in open trays under ambient conditions for 14 days. A gradual increase in the physiological weight loss, lycopene, colour and activity of enzyme polygalacturonase with simultaneous decrease in titrable acidity and firmness in tomatoes was noticed throughout storage for coated as well as uncoated tomatoes. Ascorbic acid and reducing sugars showed increasing trend followed by decline during storage. Amongst the edible coatings, pectin coating was the most effective in maintaining the firmness, colour, titrable acidity, TSS, ascorbic acid and provided an effective control in reducing weight loss, increase in activity of polygalacturonase and decay (%) followed by starch coating. CMC coating was not efficient in maintaining these quality parameters. Hence, pectin coating could be successfully used for maintaining the quality and extending the shelf life of fresh tomato fruit. Top Keywords Cellulose, edible coating, pectin, polygalacturonase, starch, tomato. Top |