Enhancing the keeping quality of fresh strawberry using chitosan-incorporated olive processing wastes

Not only, strawberry fruits have a very short shelf life, but also their bioactive substances were declined during postharvest. This study is aimed at determining the efficacy of edible coating enrichment with olive wastes polyphenols based chitosan on components of cold-stored strawberry fruits. Fruits were sprayed with five different coating formulas compared to water wax incorporated with thiabendazole (WW-TBZ) and uncoated fruits served as control. Then, some freshness parameters, decay area and microstructure observation were assayed. Indeed, the losses of each parameter in uncoated fruits were extremely rapid compared with coated fruits. Conversely, malondialdehyde and decay area significantly increased in uncoated fruits compared with coated fruits. Amazingly, the addendum of olive leaves extract into chitosan coating was expressively reduced the gradual decline in total phenolics, flavonoids, antioxidants, ascorbic acid and malondialdehyde. Whereas, olive pomace extract recorded the lowest influencing on anthocyanins during storage at 4±1 °C for 16 day. In addition, both olive wastes extracts significantly enhanced the bioactive substances compared with WW-TBZ. Then, fruits coated with chitosan incorporation coating solution showed uniform coating distribution and no pores were found. Thus, olive wastes extracts integration into chitosan based coating led to keep the bioactive substances of cold-stored strawberry fruits.