జర్నల్ ఆఫ్ మైక్రోబియల్ & బయోకెమికల్ టెక్నాలజీ

నైరూప్య

Silver Nanoparticles in Polymeric Matrices for Keeping Quality of Dates Packaging

serag farag zaied

Recently, edible coatings are used to enrobe fresh produce. Date fruits (Hyani cv.) are in mature stage with high preferability, unique taste besides and high nutrition values to consumer. Unfortunately, these soft fruits are rapid deterioration ( loss of moisture, ferments and spoil rapidly)leading to rejection by consumer either during storage or
few days of marketing. The present work aims to prolong the shelf –life period either during storage or marketing with high quality by using Nano-technology. Nano-silver/PVA films were prepared with different concentrations (25, 50 and100 mg .kg-1),then fruits were dipped and stored at cold conditions (0±1ºC, 90-95 %, RH). Different spectrometry instruments were used to verify the obtained edible blend structure of silver Nano -particles(AgNPs)characterization as transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, UV–Visible scanning and FTIR spectroscopy. The freshness of Rutab dates was assessed by regularly measuring the microbiological, physicochemical properties of dates as total count of bacteria and fungi, decay( %)moisture content( %), weight loss(%),shelf life and the sensory evaluation of each treatment. The obtained results showed that active AgNPs at 100 ppm, then 50 ppm+PVC were more affecting to improve quality ,by comparing with PVA or control. Its effects reflected in extension of dates shelf life with high quality ,besides consumer's acceptance either during long cold storage (0±1ºC, 98 %, RH)or retail period (12±2ºC,55-70 %RH), which extended to 30 days than untreated which
spoilage after one week. Finally, it could be recommended that the potential applications of nano-particles as combined treatments to fresh fruits are more safe for human health and easily for application.