Physicochemical Behavior of Zinc‐Fortified, Sodium Caseinate‐Based, Edible‐Coated Apricots during Storage in Controlled Atmosphere

Edible coatings are one of the efficient tools to reduce the postharvest losses and ability to incorporate various functional additives. Purposely, current research is an attempt to add fortificants and improve shelf life of fresh apricots using zinc as edible coatings. To increase zinc density, sodium caseinate‐based coatings (1 and 2%) fortified with ZnO (20 and 40 ppm) were applied followed by storage in controlled climate chamber. During storage, various quality parameters were assessed to estimate fortificant retention and shelf life extension. Resultantly, coating mixture containing 2% sodium caseinate fortified with 40 ppm ZnO proved to be the best among other treatments. It was deduced that the higher level of sodium caseinate in coating formulations behaved positively in preserving the quality attributes of fruit and zinc retention. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: The current study was aimed at exploring the potential utilization of edible coatings as a carrier of zinc coated over apricots to curtail the predicament of hypozincemia, i.e., zinc deficiency. Purposely, sodium caseinate‐based, zinc‐fortified edible coatings were prepared and applied on the surface of apricots. This treatment makes the apricots zinc dense as well as improves the shelf life of the apricots as edible coatings hinder the unnecessary water and gas transfers. The study explored the potential of the sodium caseinate‐based edible coatings as a promising tool to deliver added zinc salt and improved shelf life of the coated fruit. The physicochemical attributes of apricots were preserved by the utilization of these coatings and nutritionally higher zinc levels were found available for the body. Additional research work is still needed to explore more aspects of the coatings and coating fortificant mixture interactions to confirm the potential use of edible coatings as a carrier of deficient mineral salts.