10, although it iswell known that hydrocolloids do not perform verywell
as water vapor barriers in high water activity foods due to their high
hydroscopic nature. However, in this case , 2%AA+0.5%CaCl2 +1%
Chitosan and 2%AA+0.5%CaCl2 performed relatively well in limiting
water loss. This is probably due to the ability of calcium to cross-link
chitosan,making the coating insoluble, bearing in mind that the capacity
of hydrocolloid-based films to function as water vapor barriers increases
as their solubility in water decreases (Kester & Fennema, 1986).
These results indicate the greater effect pared with coating the
fruit, which could be due to the inability of forming a uniform coating
in the wet surface of the broken cellular material. The moisture of the
fruit surface affects the degree of adhesion of the hydrophobic and
hydrophilic coating materials (Baldwin et al., 1995a, b)