ISBN:  Unavailable

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Page count: 21

Starchy, a Lebanese start up, has elaborated a starch-based coating to preserve and extend the quality of fresh fruit such as apples or pears. In order to get insight in the performance of the coating the company has been interested in testing its coating on an European apple variety. Subsequently Starchy has received financial support of Agrytech to set up a project with Wageningen Food & Biobased Research (WFBR). The goal of the project was to study the effects of the Starchy edible coating on shelf life of apples (Elstar). The research was conducted independently. Wageningen Food & Biobased Research (WFBR) has drawn an experiment set-up in order to test on a scientific basis the effect of such a new coating on apple quality. The starch-based coating was tested at two dilutions on four batches of apples and under two shelf life conditions to simulate a normal and a more challenging chain with more risk of dehydration. The present document reports the set-up and results observed on the coated and uncoated apples, as well as the main conclusions. Although the test was designed to find effects of the coating on fruit quality by for instance reducing humidity during shelf life (to be able to show protective effects on water loss) and using stored mature fruits (more sensitive to develop quality issues in the subsequent chain) the differences between the coated and uncoated apples are very limited or not present al all: - Apples coated with the thicker coating receipt remained statistically firmer than the apples coated with the most fluid coating or uncoated, but this effect was very limited (