Impact of modified atmospheric packaging and edible coatings on quality of minimally processed prickly pear during cold storage

This study was performed to investigate the effect of different concentrations of modified atmospheric packaging (MAP) which consists of a mixture of gases CO2, N2 and O2, by some treatments such as (C): (60% Co2 /20% N2 /20% O2)and (D): (60% CO2 /20% N2 /20% O2) with edible coating and under vacuum packing where the treatment; (B) compared with control sample (A) on quality attributes and prolong shelf-life of minimally processed prickly pear during cold storage. All treatments were stored at (4±1°C) and relative humidity (90-95%) for 21 days and the quality parameters such as weight loss, firmness, total soluble solids (TSS), titratable acidity (TA), total caroteniods, total bacterial count, psychrophilic bacterial count, moulds and yeasts count, total colony count and sensory evaluation were done. The results observed the treatment (D) was the best for reduction of microbial load followed by treatment (C) then treatment (B) until 15 days of storage as compared to control (A) at 6 days of storage. The use of modified atmosphere packaging, either alone or in combination with the edible film, reduced the deterioration of the physiochemical characteristics of minimally processed prickly pear samples during cold storage. The obtained data indicated that the sensory evaluation, it became clear that packing in a modified atmosphere with edible coating (D) was the best, followed by packing in a modified atmosphere alone (C), which prolongs the shelf life, freshness and quality of the fruits when stored under the conditions of cooling and the relative humidity of the laboratory prickly pears which was more efficiency from storage under vacuum or without treatment as in the control sample (A). Also, these modified atmosphere packaging and edible coating showed a great influence on the quality and shelf life of the treated samples. Finally, it is evident from the results obtained that modified atmosphere packaging and edible film significantly affected the retention of the tested samples for quality characteristics in general.