An effective preserving strategy for strawberries by constructing pectin/starch coatings reinforced with functionalized eggshell fillers.

ABSTRACT

Food waste occurs frequently worldwide, though hunger and malnutrition issues have received global attention. Short-term spoilage of perishable foods causes a significant proportion of food waste. Developing simple, green, and low-cost strategies to preserve the freshness of perishable foods is important to address this issue and improving food safety. By using strawberries as the model perishable fruit, this study reported a pectin/carboxy methyl starch sodium (PC) based coating using epigallocatechin gallate-loaded eggshell powder (ES@EGCG) as the functional fillers. In comparison to PC coating, the PC-ES@EGCG coating displayed much-enhanced performance, such as enhanced mechanical (2 folds) and barrier (water vapor & oxygen) properties. This composite coating reduced the weight loss of strawberries from over 60% to around 30% after 7-day storage. Coated strawberries exhibit better freshness retention, which achieves the purpose of preserving strawberries during storage. This study provided a cost-effective and eco-friendly coating strategy for reducing food waste.