Edible coating refers to the application of a layer of any edible material on the surface of a minimally processed fruit in order to provide it with a modified atmosphere, retarding gas transfer, reducing moisture and aroma loss, delaying color changes, and improving general appearance of the product through storage (Olivas & Barbosa-Cánovas, 2005). In the past few years, research has been focused on the development of new sustainable coatings, based on biodegradable polymers. The type of coating to be used is based on the biological property of the product to be coated. In postharvest processing, many researchers has used different types of edible coating material such as Natural Seal TM 1020, cellulose-based edible coating on cut apple and other fruits and vegetables crop

Storage behaviour of jaggery samples, stored in different containers (open pan, polythene bag and jaggery drying cum storage bin) was studied for a period of 6 months. The change in quality characteristics such as moisture content, colour, sucrose and reducing sugar were determined at an interval of 1 month. The study was conducted on commercial jaggery to observe the effect of storage period on quality characteristics of jaggery. The experimental data revealed that the jaggery moisture content was increased from an initial value of 12.07 to 22.36% (db) in open storage, while it was decreased to 9.23% (db) in case of bin and was increased up to 15.84% (db) in case of polythene bags. Similarly the percentage change in sucrose, reducing sugar and colour was lesser in bin and polythene bags than in open storage. The colour of jaggery became darker during storage. The optical density of jaggery was increased from 0.18 to 0.27. The acidity of the jaggery was increased slightly during storage which was within the safe limits. Good keeping quality of jaggery could be maintained in storage bin. Jaggery, stored in bin, showed less reduction in quality parameters.

Pectin is a heterogeneous polysaccharide found in the cell wall, middle lamellae of many fruits and vegetables, and is widely used as gelling agent, emulsifier and stabilizer in food industry. In keeping the importance of pectin in the food industry, ultrasound-assisted extraction of pectin from sweet lime peel was investigated. The individual and interactive effect of solid-solvent ratio, ultrasound power intensity and sonication time on the pectin yield, equivalent weight and methoxyl content were studied and analyzed using multiple regression analysis. The maximum pectin yield (36.4 g/100 g), equivalent weight (740.3 mg) and methoxyl content (7.1%) was obtained under optimal condition (solid-solvent ratio of 1:24.3 g/ml, ultrasound power intensity of 80 W/cm2 and sonication time of 18.4 min). Significant (p < 0.05) effect of process parameters was found in all responses of pectin extracted from sweet lime peel. It was also revealed from the present study that ultrasound-assisted extraction of pectin from sweet lime peel is an efficient approach toward waste valorization and extraction of pectin with high yield and good quality attributes.

Carrot pomace and finger millet flour were used to enrich the nutritional potential of biscuits with fiber. Their combined effect on physiochemical properties was optimized by response surface methodology. Experiments were conducted to standardize the formulation for development of fiber enriched biscuits using carrot pomace powder and finger millet flour at different baking times. Box-Behnken design was selected for modeling of the three independent variables: carrot pomace powder (10 g, 15 g, 20 g), finger millet flour (2.5 g, 5 g, 7.5 g), and baking time (21 min, 23 min, 25 min). Various experimental runs were used to evaluate the effect of above independent variables on spread ratio, change in colour, moisture content, ash content, fat content, fiber content, hardness and general acceptability. The optimum values predicted 15.522 g of carrot pomace powder, 5.178 g of finger millet flour and 21 min of baking time for development of enriched biscuits with 7.51 spread ratio, 17.02 change in colour, 2.85 g/100g moisture (wet basis), 14.84 g/100g fat, 2.56 g/100g ash, and 2.28 g/100g fiber, 61.967 N hardness, 8.424 general acceptability.

Button mushroom were coated by dipping in a coating solution for a period of 75s, formulated by dissolving a combination of apple peel powder and CMC into distilled water. A total of nine different combinations with three levels of apple peel powder concentration (1.0, 1.2 and 1.4%w/v) and three levels of CMC concentration (1.2, 1.5 and 1.8%w/v) were used to prepare the coating solution. To analyse the effect of coating materials on physicochemical properties of button mushroom, the physicochemical responses like weight loss, shrinkage ratio, water activity, color variation, microbial load and free radical scavenging activity were assessed. The higher concentration of apple peel powder was resulting in degradation of colour of coated sample during storage due to anthocyanin content of apple peel powder. The moderate concentration of apple peel powder (1.2% w/v) with high level of CMC concentration (1.8% w/v) were found to be the best combination of coating materials which increased the shelf life of button mushroom upto 5 days along with retaining the quality attributes closest to the fresh sample.