The effect of active packaging based on carboxymethyl cellulose contains walnut and lemon peels essential oils on the shelf life of mushroom

In this research, the effects of carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) contains lemon peel and walnut shell essential oils as edible coatings on the shelf life and postharvest losses of mushrooms were studied. Mushrooms were stored at 4 °C for 12 days and physicochemical characteristics were analyzed after 0, 4, 8 and 12 days of storage. During cold storage, the uncoated mushrooms showed rapid weight loss and total soluble solid changes while mushrooms treated with CMC coating containing lemon peel and walnut shell essential oils significantly (p<0.05) delayed these phenomena. Although firmness of both coated and control samples decreased throughout storage, the use of CMC-essential oils coating significantly (p<0.05) reduced the loss of firmness in mushroom samples. The L* value changes of the mushrooms coated with CMC-essential oils was lower than that of others. A significant (p<0.05) decrease in L* value and a significant (p<0.05) increase in a and b values occurred in all mushrooms during the maintenance period. The use of edible coating led to significant (p<0.05) decrease in number of microorganisms of the mushrooms during all days of storage. Incorporation of the essential oils into CMC coating solution caused increase in microbial quality of the coated samples. Using the CMC coating containing 3% lemon peel essential oil led to significantly increasing (p<0.05) of sensory parameter scores, so that the treatment containing 3% lemon peel essential oil had the highest acceptability score compared to control and other treatments.