Evaluation of probiotic bioactive edible coating application on qualitative properties of fresh strawberry

Low storage time and high spoilage rate of some fruits, such as strawberries, can cause many economic losses to countries every year. Therefore, the application of new methods such as edible coatings can be effective in resolving this problem. In this study, the effects of calcium alginate coating contain native probiotic bacterium L. plantarum KMC45 and bacterial suspension in distilled water on the qualitative characteristics of produced probiotic strawberry during two weeks storage in refrigerated were investigated. The results showed that the application of calcium alginate containing probiotic bacteria was more effective in preserving the strawberry quality characteristics than the treatment of immersion in the probiotic bacterial suspension. This treatment compared to control treatment decreased the weight loss, texture softening as well as the decay percentage of strawberries during the 14-days by 2.38, 1.31 and 40%, respectively. Also in this study, changes in color indexes such as L *, Hugh angle and chromium in the coated samples were less than the control treatment. In addition, the results of total viable count of L. plantarum KMC45 in different strawberry treatments during storage at 4 ° C showed that after two weeks, the decline of population in bacterial suspension coating treatment was 2.97 log, while in the calcium alginate coating treatment was only 0.95 log. The calcium alginate coating was not affected on the taste and odor of strawberry, but it increased the score of other sensory characteristics such as texture, appearance, and overall acceptance compared to the other two treatments. Therefore, calcium alginate coating is recommended as a suitable carrier for the transfer of probiotic microorganisms to fresh strawberry, which can increase the shelf life of them and promote the production and development of new probiotic products.