The Edible Coatings Role on the Microbial Activity of Mozafati Date Fruits

Maintaining the desired quality of dates, clearing them of contaminants and proper packaging to increase shelf life are among the priorities of the country. Since the use of edible coatings with vegetable oils is one of the ways to prevent the growth of microorganisms, was used natural polymers including zein and chitosan, alone and along with pimpernel oil on microbial activity of Mazafati date fruits, for one year at 4 and -18°C and the second year at 10°C was investigated. The obtained data were analyzed using SPSS software and Duncan's mean comparison was performed. The results showed that this dates with 32% moisture content had a high microbial load. The fungi of Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus flavus, Rhizopu stolonifers, and Alternaria alternata were grown on it. These fungi, in particular Aspergillus niger, were involved in its rotting and lactic acid bacteria in its rancidity. By doing this research, the number of Aspergillus niger fungi was reduced by logarithmic three cycles using zein and chitosan edible coatings with pimpernel oil; and penicillium fungi were completely eliminated. In general, the lowest number of microbial growth was observed in Zein treatment 362.5 & 150 log cfu/g , in the first and second years respectively, and the highest number was observed in the control sample 10750 & 1025 log cfu/g. The use of anise oil also had an effect on reducing the overall count of microorganisms. Finally, according to the microbial results, the use of zein treatment is recommended.