POTENTIALS OF USING EDIBLE COATINGS AS CARRIERS OF NUTRACEUTICALS

摘要

Edible coatings offer great advantages to extend shelf-life and improve quality of foods by regulating moisture, gas and lipid transfer in food surface. Enhanced nutritional values of foodstuffs can also be achieved by incorporating nutraceutical ingredients, such as calcium and vitamins into edible coatings without processing of the product. This especially benefits non-fabricated foods like fresh fruits and vegetables, where the lack of some nutrients may be compensated by incorporating nutraceuticals into edible coatings as they are usually used as moisture and gas barrier for extending shelf-life. In this study, xnthan gum coating was used to carry 5% Gluconal Cal, a mixture of calcium lactate and gluconate, and 0.2% α-tocopheryl acetate (vitamin E) by weight, respectively. Mini-peeled baby carrots were dipped in the coating solutions, dried, and then stored at 2℃ and 85% RH up to 3 weeks. Calcium and vitamin E of the coated samples per serving (85g) increased from 2.6% to 6.6%, and 0 to about 67% of the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI) values respectively. Edible coatings significantly (p<0.05) improved the desirable surface color and overall acceptability of carrots without significant (p<0.05) effects on the taste, texture, and fresh aroma and flavor except slightly slippery surface. The p-carotene level in the baby carrots (p<0.05) was not affected by edible coating neither.