Edible Coating Technology for Extending Market Life of Horticultural Produce

K Prasad¹*, Abhay Kumar Guarav², Preethi P³ and Pallavi Neha⁴

¹Division of Food Science and Postharvest Technology, ICAR-IARI, New Delhi, India
²Division of Floriculture and Landscaping, ICAR-IARI, New Delhi, India
³ICAR-Directorate of Cashew Research, Puttur, Karnataka, India
⁴Division of Postharvest Technology and Agricultural Engineering, ICAR- IIHR, Bengaluru, India

*Corresponding Author: K Prasad, Division of Food Science and Postharvest Technology, ICAR-IARI, New Delhi, India.

Received: December 20, 2018; Published: April 27, 2018

Citation: K Prasad., et al. “Edible Coating Technology for Extending Market Life of Horticultural Produce". Acta Scientific Agriculture 2.5 (2018).

Abstract

  Postharvest quality management of horticultural produce through eco-friendly treatments is an emerging field. One of such promising and emerging postharvest treatment for extending the market life of lively respiring horticultural produce is ‘Edible coating’. Edible coatings when applied on harvested horticultural commodities such as fruits, vegetables, edible products of flowers, plantation and mushrooms, extend their shelf life, marketability and postharvest quality. The edible coating does not leave any post application residues and thus makes the product readily consumable. It positively affects physical (moisture retention, glossiness, appearance, firmness), physiological (respiration rate, ethylene evolution rate), and biochemical attributes (cell wall degrading enzymes) attributes of horticultural commodities. Recent advances have now enabled growers to intelligently apply edible coating both solely and in combination with other postharvest treatments and natural preservatives for retention of postharvest quality with the minimized postharvest loss. This review presents a compiled information extracted from various scientific reports (> 50 scientific articles (2002 - 2017)) to put light on various aspects of edible coating technology. The objective of this review is to describe detailed information on the mechanism, formulation and application of edible coating technology on horticultural commodities such as fruits, vegetables and edible products of flowers, plantation and mushroom along with highlighting future perspectives of this technology. Although the results of this technology are promising, at the same time we need to extend the horizon to explore potential uses of this technology on the commercial scale in various corners of the world.

Keywords: Edible Coating; Horticultural Produce; Eco-Friendly Technology

Copyright: © 2018 K Prasad., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.