Abstract
Smart edible coating films can be used in food packaging. For this application, they must have good physical and mechanical properties. Herein, chitosan-beeswax based film is used to preserve Le Conte pears postharvest. The chitosan-beeswax films were characterized using XRD, FT-IR, and SEM analysis. Moreover, all films showed good self-healing aptitudes ranging from 86.7 to 96.3. The film treated with pollen grains showed an enhanced water contact angle compared with the chitosan film. The chitosan-beeswax/pollen grain film exhibited a two-fold lower WVTR value compared to the chitosan film, and showed the tendency to increase the stiffness of the film. The elongation% at break was reduced from 35.81 to 14.09. Fruit quality parameters were determined in cold storage for 105 days during shelf life after a simulated marketing period of 7 days. All coated fruits successfully showed decrease in weight loss, decay and rate of softening. Therefore, chitosan-beeswax/pollen grains can be considered safe and effective coating for the fruit preservation.