3.4. Effects of combined treatment on the firmness of green beans
during refrigerated storage
The
firmness of green bean samples treated with palmitoylated
chitosan and nanoemulsion of mandarin EO based coating in
combination with different non-thermal treatments during 14
days storage at 4 C was evaluated by determining the cutting
force, with the results being reported in Table 2.
Control samples substantially maintained the same
firmness
over storage, and the coated samples were not significantly
different from the control samples. This is in contrast with some
works, which previously reported, as a consequence of the
application of chitosan-based coatings, an increase in
firmness
of fruits and vegetables, such as strawberries (Devlieghere et al.,
2004), as well as tomato slices, pears and squash (Agullo et al.,
2003).