Improvement in Shelf-Life of Strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa Duch.) cv. Winter Dawn with Edible Coatings Enriched with Chitosan

A lab experiment was conducted during February-March, 2015 on strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa Duch.) to study the effect of Calcium Chloride, Carboxymethyl cellulose and Chitosan on physical and chemical characters having 14 treatments treated with calcium chloride and CMC (1%, 2% and 3% each) without adding Chitosan and with Chitosan 1%. Application of Carboxymethyl cellulose 2% + Chitosan 1% to the strawberry fruits helped to maintain all the characters attributing to quality. These treatments reduced the weight loss and spoilage during storage. Under these treatments strawberry could be stored for over 12 days (fruit still reddish in colour) compared to the control which started turning turbid yellow soon after 9 days. These treatments can be used satisfactorily by the fruit growers and the fruit merchants in order to prolong the storage life of strawberry fruits up to 12 days. However, these results are only indicative and require further experimentation to arrive at more consistent and final conclusion.