3. Results
One of the main purposes of applying wax coatings is to enhancegloss and attractiveness of the product. In the present study, itis clear that all the control uncoated citrus fruit – ‘Or’ and ‘Mor’mandarins, ‘Navel’ oranges and ‘Star Ruby’ grapefruit – had verylow gloss and would not be very attractive to buyers (Fig. 1). Incontrast, both the commercial polyethylene-based wax and theCMC/chitosan bilayer coating significantly enhanced fruit gloss andoverall visual appearance; it is noteworthy that, perhaps because oftheir rougher peel, the coated oranges were somewhat less glossythan the coated mandarins and grapefruit (Fig. 1).