Aplicación de un recubrimiento comestible a base de Quitosano sobre la calidad sensorial y microbiológica de moras de Castilla (Rubus glaucus Benth)

Abstract

The Blackberry (Rubus glaucus Benth) is one of the most Perishable fruit, due to its high respiratory rate and the lack of shell that protects the fruit’s quality. The present research was like objective to study the effect of the application of an edible coating based on chitosan on weight loss, respiratory rate, the sensory and microbiological quality of blackberry with the purpose of preserving the attributes of quality and the acceptability of the fruit. The blackberries under study were stored to 6 ± 1 °C and the analyses were performed on days 1, 3, 6 and 8. The recovery of the chitosan decreased the counts of mesophilic aerobic bacteria in 0,99 log ufc/g, molds and yeasts in 2,01 log ufc/g. Besides the recovering reduced the percentage of weight loss, the respiratory rate of blackberry and preserved the texture of the fruit. The chitosan as edible coating allowed preserving the organoleptic characteristics of the fruit, being acceptable by the consumers during the sensorial evaluation. This recovering can be used to preserve the fruit’s quality as it has antibacterial and antifungal activity which allowed increasing the useful life of the blackberry up to 8 days.