Skip to main content
2023 AOCS Annual Meeting & Expo Main banner
Icon Legend
This session is not in your schedule.
This session is in your schedule. Click again to remove it.
Back

Protein and Co-Products

Poster

Session:: Protein and Co-Products Poster Session

Cellulose nanocrystal-protein composite coating for avocado preservation

Monday, May 1, 2023
4:30 PM – 6:00 PM MDT
Abstract: The impact of food waste is tremendous. Among all foods, fruits and vegetables are the highest categories of losses with 50-60% of produce discarded to landfills. These fresh products are exposed to multiple external stresses at every step of the production and supply chain, including microbes as well as varying moisture and oxygen levels that lead to their spoilage and waste. Existing commercial solutions that extend the shelf-life of fresh produce involve primarily wax coatings combined with chemical fungicides; however, these technologies are associated with human health and environmental concerns. Currently, there is a lack of optimal alternative edible coatings for perishable foods, particularly relevant for high-value produce items with low shelf-life like avocados (shelf life of ~3 days). Here, we developed a cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) soy protein composite coating for the preservation of avocados. The coated avocados resulted in more than 25% reduction in weight loss over 10 days and maintained more than 90% fruit firmness over 7 days. Therefore, the coating was observed to double the shelf-life of avocados under ambient conditions while maintaining high fruit firmness, low weight loss, and intact fruit structure with minimal browning. Increased improvement in avocado preservation and quality was attributed to the incorporation of CNC in the coating, which resulted in enhanced moisture retention, better adhesion properties, and greater mechanical robustness. We also investigate the effect of various material characteristics - contact angle, surface roughness, viscosity, mechanical strength, and barrier properties - on the coating application efficacy and preservation. This study provides further insight on the smart utilization of low-cost materials, like soy and CNC, as protective coatings to extend the shelf-life of fruits and vegetables, thus, mitigating food waste economically and sustainably.