Use of Edible coating for minimally processed Fruits and Vegetables

Today’s society is characteristized by an increasing health consciousness and growing interest in role of food for maintaining and improving human well being and consumer health  . Fresh vegetables have been traditionally prepared for consumption at home, hotels, restaurant by washing, trimming, cutting, peeling and so on. When industry started to carry out those process, a new type of product was created called minimally processed fruits and vegetables   This type of processing appeared in 1980s as a response to the demand for easily prepared products which are as similar as possible to fresh product . The consumption of fresh cut fruits and vegetables has undergone a sharp increase  . The minimally processed vegetables are also known with French term of IV gamme. The sale of such produce is increase as it combines the quality of fresh example (I gamme) with the ease of preparation typical of transferred food stuffs such as preserved (II gamme) and frozen vegetables (III gamme). Minimally processing normally involves washing, trimming, scraping, slicing or dicing, shredding and or chopping, removal of moisture, packaging and storage of vegetables at refrigerated temperature 

Minimally Processed refrigerated fruits and vegetables are fresh raw foods which are usually processed  and sold to consumer in Ready to Eat (RTE) form Minimally processed vegetables also called Lightly processed , Fresh cut, prepared products and Precut produces . Huxoll and Bolin (1989) stated that minimally processed fruits and vegetables are products that have the attributes of convenience and fresh quality.

Since the last decade, lettuce, chicory salads, cabbage, carrots and other analogus vegetables are still the most consumed fresh produced vegetables.Cauliflower is marketed cut in florets and packed in small units .Lettuce is the primary components of minimally processed vegetables which are increasingly marketed for fast food, catering and consumption.