OPTIMIZATION OF COATING TIME OF HYDROCOLLOID BASED EDIBLE COATING FOR SHELF LIFE EXTENSION OF LIGHT RED TOMATOES.

The aim of the study was to optimize the coating time of the hydrocolloid based edible coating for the light red stage tomatoes. The coating was applied onto the tomatoes by the dipping method for the different coating times varying from 0.5 to 5 min (i.e. 30 s, 1 min, 2 min, 3 min, 4 min and 5 min) and various responses like gas concentration, physiological weight loss (PLw) of tomatoes, coating thickness and coating pick up were studied. The tomatoes coated for 4 min were found to have the least PLw(3.43%) and minimum change in gas concentration with 1.1% carbon dioxide (CO2¬) and 19.4% oxygen (O2), whereas control sample registered higher values of moisture loss (9.42 ± 1.84%) and 3.5% CO2 and 14.9% O2 after 5 days of storage at 10 °C and 85% relative humidity. The coating pickup for the tomatoes coated for 4 min was of 4.9 ± 0.3 and coating thickness 12.5 ± 0.87 micron. The treatment was found to have a significant reduction in moisture loss and respiration rate at 5% significant level effect on the responses studied.