Shelf life is the amount of time that corresponds to an acceptable reduction in food quality under certain conditions. This feature depends on various intrinsic and environmental factors such as the nature of the food, storage processes, coating and the type of packaging, and it affects the stability of the product. The ability to estimate shelf life is of considerable commercial value, but there is no reliable method for this purpose for fresh pistachios. The aim of this study was to create mathematical models to predict the shelf life of food, using Badami's fresh pistachio samples coated with chitosan edible coating in different concentrations (0, 1, and 1.5%) under three atmospheres including ambient atmospheric condition, passive MAP, and active MAP. The shelf life study was performed at 5°C and a multivariate prediction of instrumental and sensorial firmness was performed through kinetic models. In this study, fresh pistachios coated with 1.5% chitosan under active MAP had the highest estimated shelf life (86 days). Also, obtained models were able to estimate the softening time to the end-point of shelf life in different conditions of coating and packaging of fresh pistachios.

Keywords: Sensory evaluation, Modified Atmosphere Packaging, Fresh pistachios, Texture, shelf life

Full-Text [PDF 676 kb]   (1277 Downloads)