Effects of clove essential oil (Caryophyllus aromaticus L.) nanoemulsion incorporated edible coating on shelf-life of fresh cut apple pieces

Fresh cut fruit is ready to eat and can be taken on the go. Freshly cut apple pieces are perishable and prone to contamination that can damage its quality. In the current investigation, clove essential oil was used to formulate nanoemulsion (NE) in three distinct concentrations, NE-1 (0.1%), NE-2 (0.5%), and NE-3 (1%), which were then incorporated with Sodium Alginate (SA) based coating solution to impart their qualities to the outer surface of apple pieces. Sodium alginate layer helps to extend the shelf life of fruits by reducing moisture loss, inhibiting microbial growth, and protecting against physical damage. Physico-chemical properties of this solution were investigated using Box–Behnken design after it was employed to coat the freshly cut apple pieces and stored at 4 °C for 14 days. The clove essential oil nanoemulsion's average droplet size and Zeta Potential were in the nanometric range. The addition of increasing concentrations of clove nanoemulsion to the alginate coating solution decreased the zeta potential of the colloidal dispersion from −51.0 to −3.02 mV. The average droplet diameter of the edible coatings containing different clove nanoemulsion concentrations (81.04–3342 nm), whereas sodium alginate edible coating solution (SA) was in micrometric range. The Total phenol content and Antioxidant content of CEO based samples were found to be high as 38.9 mg/ml and 79.1% respectively because of bioactive chemicals and essential oil properties. NE-3 coated apple samples were found to more affective compared with the control and SA coated samples in terms of sensory and shelf-life metrics among all the treatments.