Effect of Gelatin and Ascorbic Acid Edible Coatings on the Quality of Sweet Pepper Fruits.

Sweet peppers (Capsicum annuum L) have a short storage period and marketing of less than two weeks, due to their susceptibility to fungal diseases, decay, shriveling, flaccidity and wilting. Therefore, the present study was to determine the effect of composite gelatin and ascorbic acid Edible Coatings on the physical and chemical properties of sweet pepper fruits stored at 10˚C and 90-95% relative humidity. The obtained results revealed that the treatments of Sweet peppers with composite 5% ascorbic acid with 1.5% gelatin edible coating reduced the weight loss % and decay, Also maintained general appearance, fruit firmness, total soluble solids (TSS), ascorbic acid content, total carotenoids content and total chlorophyll content to 35 days of cold storage followed by 5% ascorbic acid with 5% gelatin treatment compared with other treatments and untreated as a control. The development in this study of edible film and a coating prepared from ascorbic acid and gelatin can be a new approach to preventing postharvest loss and increasing the shelf life of sweet pepper.