Journal of Food Processing & Technology

Abstract

Comparative Estimation of Alginate and Soy Based Coatings on Ph and Vitamin C Contents of Strawberry (Fragaria Ananassa L) at Controlled Climate Chamber

Waqas Ahmed, Masood Sadiq Butt, Mian Kamran Sharif and Muhammad Shahid

In the present study, effort was made to address the alarming situation of postharvest losses. For the purpose, alginate and soy based coatings were prepared and their effect on minimizing the postharvest losses and allied nutritional attributes in strawberry was observed. Meanwhile, a comparison with the commercial wax coating was also estimated. Results showed that pH differed significantly with respect to storage for both the experiments. However, non momentous variations were observed with respect to treatments kept at room temperature ranging from 4.18 to 4.26 for the treatments. Meanwhile, ascorbic acid (vitamin C) levels differed appreciably as a factor of storage among all the treatments. For controlled climate chamber kept strawberries, vitamin C levels ranged from 42.67 to 46.43 mg/100 gm whilst for room temperature the values for the parameter ranged from 36.87 to 39.58 mg/100 gm. Conclusively, it may be inferred that edible coatings hold potential to be adopted as a tooling aid in addressing the alarming situation of postharvest and nutritional losses in fruits that may ultimately lead help earn foreign exchange reserves in return.