The Effect of Active Microbial Packaging on Postharvest Quality of Strawberry Fruit

Antimicrobial packaging is one of the most important applications of active packaging. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of antimicrobial packaging on the quality of strawberry fruit cv. Camarosa The experiment was conducted as factorial in a completely randomized design with four types of fruit packaging control with no inoculation and inoculation of fungi, 12 and 24 μl of essential oil /ml air and the second factor was sampling time (harvest time, 4, 8 and 12 days). During the experiment, traits qualitative and biochemical properties were investigated. The results showed that with increasing storage time in all treatments, decay percentage, weight loss, total anthocyanin, total phenol and flavonoid increased, while the amount of vitamin C and antioxidant capacity decreased. The amount of vitamin C, flavonoids and antioxidant capacity in fruits treated with peppermint essential oil were significantly higher than those of the control group. The microbial populations during the storage period was decreased in the treatment of essential oils. Totally, It seems that The concentration of 24 μl / ml peppermint essential oil loaded with microselle foam with slow release could reduce the percentage of fruit decay and microbial populations and maintain the qualitative and biochemical properties of strawberry fruit during cold storage. Considering that the essential oil of peppermint is very effective on the growth of Botrytis cinerea due to the presence of dominant components such as menthol and menthol at relatively low concentrations, so using this essential oil instead of artificial preservatives, It looks like something useful and effective.