Edible Coating Incorporated with Essential Oil for Enhancing Shelf-Life of Fruits: A Review

Abstract

Fresh fruit has recently gained popularity in the market for healthy, organic, functional, and convenient foods. Production and consumption of fresh fruit increases from time to time. Consumer demand for fresh fruits that are rich in nutrition and health benefits have presented a challenge to the food industry to obtain appropriate technology to meet the need. However, there are some limitations regarding the storage of the fresh fruits. Fresh fruits cannot stand for a long term due to the rapid of ripening process in the fruit’s tissues. The ripening process commonly related to the respiration and transpiration process in the fruits tissue. Besides, the fresh-cut fruits also easily getting spoilage with a growth of microbial in the fruits. There are some innovations regarding packaging food film from synthetic materials which are quite wide applied in the food industry. This material is not an environmentally friendly due to the synthetic’s materials are not made by natural resources. Study towards the application of natural resources in the formation edible film packaging have been done. It is due to the global demand to replace the synthetic plastic film packaging with biodegradable film packaging that are environmentally friendly and users friendly. This review aims at providing a broad overview of recent scientific research related to preservation of fruits in the food industry and its health effects in consumers. It involved recent analysis of edible film incorporate with different type of essential oils from natural sources such as plants for preservations of fruits.