ABSTRACT
The use of edible coatings and film to prolong the quality and shelf life of fruit and vegetables has been a strategy that has been popularized because of its advantages as a sustainable food preservation technology system, creating a gas barrier and producing a modified atmosphere 224around fruit and vegetables. This atmosphere reduces the availability of O2 and increases the concentration of CO2; thus reducing the breathing rate and the loss of water, thereby increasing the shelf life of the product. One of the advantages of using this technology is that these materials can serve as vehicles for other ingredients with a different specific purpose, so that, for example, antimicrobial agents, flavorings, antioxidants, and pigments have been incorporated into the formulations. Biodegradable polymers and other bio-based packaging materials are among the materials used to make edible casings and film. Galactomannans are a type of biopolymer that has unique properties for this purpose. This chapter analyzes the use of galactoman-nans as an attractive biodegradable polymer used for bio-based edible coating and film materials.
