Edible coatings to improve luminosity and firmness in tomatoes during postharvest

The objective of this work was to evaluate the optical and mechanical properties of edible coatings based on solid lipid nanoparticles (SLN) and their effect on fresh tomato fruits (Saladette variety). Four different systems with SLN were evaluated: 0.5 g L-1 of SLN (N5P), 0.5 g L-1 of SLN + shellac (NSPS), 1 g L-1 of SLN (N10P), and1 g L-1 of SLN + shellac (N10PS); the plasticizer concentration was of 10, 25 and 50 g L-1, all coatings was supported in xanthan gum (3 g L-1). The treatments were compared with tomatoes control and coated with xanthan gum (XG) to find which of them had the best luminosity and surface adhesion to the fruits skin. Lightness was evaluated directly on the surface of coated tomato fruits for 26 days at 12?C. The control samples had an initial Luminosity of 68, and the results showed a decrease of 10% with a final value of 61.8. The tomatoes with SLN had a constant luminosity during the storage time and the samples coated with XG were the more luminous with a value of 73. The mechanical properties evaluated were tensile strength (TS), elongation (E) and elastic modulus (EM), showing that the higher concentration of plasticizer and the addition of shellac presented the higher E with values between 8.7 to 34%; on the other hand, EM showed an inverse behavior with values of 1.92 to 0.17 MPa. According with results obtained, the firmness decreased from 27 to 17 N after 15 days in control samples while in fruit coated with N10P only from 25 to 20 N.? SourcesSolid lipid nanoparticles based edible coating for ?Saladette? tomato preservationRicardo Gonz?lez1, Ver?nica Miranda-Linares1, Mois?s J. Galindo-P?rez1,2,?Alicia del Real3, M. de la Luz Zambrano-Zaragoza11Laboratorio de Procesos de Transformaci?n de Alimentos y Tecnolog?as Emergentes, Departamento de Ingenier?a y Tecnolog?a, Facultad de Estudios Superiores Cuautitl?n, Universidad Nacional Aut?noma de M?xico, km. 2.5 Carretera Cuautitl?n?Teoloyucan, San Sebasti?n Xhala, Cuautitl?n Izcalli 54714, Estado de M?xico, Mexico2Laboratorio de Posgrado en Tecnolog?a Farmac?utica, Facultad de Estudios Superiores Cuautitl?n, Universidad Nacional Aut?noma de M?xico, Avenida 1? de mayo s/n, Cuautitl?n Izcalli 54745, Estado de M?xico, Mexico3Blvd. Juriquilla 3001, Juriquilla La Mesa, Quer?taro, 76230, MexicoVIII International Postharvest Symposium, Cartagena, Spain, 21-24 June 2016 Picture:?Akira Seeds