Effective Enhancement of Post-Harvest Tomato Storage through Wrapping Using Deacetylated Chitin Nanofibril-Plasticized Honey Films

As one of the most grown seasonal fruit, tomato is widely consumed for making food products, drugs and ornaments. However, poor post-harvest handling system, transport and storage facilities deteriorate the quality of tomato fruits resulting into post-harvest losses. These problems have been addressed by the use of nanotechnology in this study. The combination of a chitosan surface and the core shell chitin results into novel deacetylated chitin nanofibril (DeChNF) with good biological activity and mechanical strength. The effectiveness of the DeChNF films for food preservation as an alternative material to chitosan is investigated. The DeChNF with degree of acetylation (DA) = 60.2% and chitosan (DA = 7.1%) were obtained from crab shells. Two appraches were employed to store freshly matured tomatoes harvested at a breaker stage. The tomatoes were coated with the colloidal suspension and wrapped in the films. Flexible wrapping films were prepared from the colloidal suspension through solution casting using bees honey (35%) and compared to those with glycerol (25%) as plastisizers. The main output storage parameters analysed include colour development, surface spoilage, and weight loss over 20 days at a 73% relative humidity. Tomatoes covered with DeChNF-honey and chitosan-honey films remained in good condition after 20 days, while the coated samples lasted for up to 15 days, except those coated with DeChNF, and those covered with a polyethylene films or stored in a refrigerator at 9 °C. The samples covered with DeChNF films plasticized with honey showed the best resistance against weight loss. The tensile strength of the DeChNF-honey films (strength = 21.32 MPa) and the chitosan-honey films (strength = 21.86 MPa) were higher than the polyethylene films (10.9 MPa). The current work increases understanding on DeChNF as an alternative material, with additional of honey as a plasticizer, over the superior chitosan, or commercial films based on fossil resources.