The role of xanthan gum in traditional coatings of easy peelers

Xanthan gum was introduced into a traditional, wax-based coating formulation for easy peelers. Xanthan was chosen because of its non-gelling nature and the fact that coatings based solely on this gum have the highest gloss relative to that of films produced with other non-gelling agents. Xanthan created disturbances in the ordered, regular structure of the traditional wax coating, as observed by electron microscopy. As a result of this imperfect coating, fruit respiration was less disturbed and less ethanol and acetaldehyde were detected by gas chromatography in the fruit as compared to fruits that were coated by the same method using a commercial formulation. In addition, less off-flavors were detected by sensory evaluation of juice extracted from the fruit coated with the wax-xanthan coating. Xanthan therefore seems to be a beneficial addition to traditional wax coatings, producing tastier fruits and juices. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.