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 40ppm) 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 40ppm 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.