Skip to main content
ARS Home » Southeast Area » Byron, Georgia » Fruit and Tree Nut Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #425122
Research Project: Pecan Processing Technology

Location: Fruit and Tree Nut Research

Title: Fatty acid coating reduces weight loss and inhibits browning of breadfruit

Author
item SHU, CHANG - Former ARS Employee
item Bai, Jinhe
item LINCOLN, NOA - University Of Hawaii
item Sun, Xiuxiu

Submitted to: HortScience
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/27/2025
Publication Date: 8/13/2025
Citation: Shu, C., Bai, J., Lincoln, N.K., Sun, X.N. 2025. Fatty acid coating reduces weight loss and inhibits browning of breadfruit. HortScience. 60(9):1527-1533. https://doi.org/10.21273/HORTSCI18624-25.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21273/HORTSCI18624-25

Interpretive Summary: Breadfruit is climacteric, and matures and degrades quickly, with a postharvest shelf life of between on 2 and 5 days. Extending its shelf life is critical for local and export market opportunities of the fresh fruit. Six wax coatings were applied for breadfruit postharvest preservation in this research. All the coatings significantly reduced fruit weight loss, and increased firmness, and total soluble solids content relative to control after 7 days storage at 20 °C. The fatty acid emulsion Coating 1 treated fruit showed significantly lower weight loss than both the control and other coating treatments. The conclusions of this research will result in the enhancement of postharvest preservation of breadfruit.

Technical Abstract: Breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis) has been identified as a priority staple crop with various nutritional benefits. Industry development is hampered by the short storage life of breadfruit at ambient conditions. Six types of wax coatings were applied to breadfruit and their effects on postharvest duration and quality were observed. All coating treatments significantly reduced fruit weight loss and maintained fruit firmness compared to control. Of the six coatings applied, Coating 1 (Nature-Cote, fatty acid emulsion) formed an evenly distributed film on the fruit surface with 32.2 µm diameter, 0.62 polydispersity index (PDI) and 6.03 mV zeta demonstrated the largest improvements in shelf-life. Coating 1 reduced the weight loss by >75%, and maintained the highest total soluble solids content (SSC) and the SSC/titratable acidity (TA) values after 7 days storage at 20 ± 0.5 °C and RH 45 ± 2%. Our results indicated wax coatings could be used to improve breadfruit preservation, among them, Coating 1 exhibited the best effect.