Banana (Musa acuminata) is a widely grown fruit crop in the tropical region.
However, banana is climacteric and has relatively short storage life as well
as being a highly perishable crop. The high respiration rate due to the rapid
ripening from the production of ethylene in the fruit during storage and other
post-harvest damage such as bruising, rotting, breaking, scarring and
blemishes is the main factor that reduce the quality of harvested banana in
the market. Due to that problem, the use of preservative and edible coating
such as chitosan is important to improve the shelf -life of banana. This
research is conducted to assess the effect of chitosan in maintaining the postharvest quality of banana stored in cold room. Three different concentrations
of chitosan at 0.5%, 1.5% and 2.5% are used – one an experimental and the
other two treatments as control where one control is without chitosan and
stored in cold room, and the other control is coated with chitosan and stored
in room temeprature. The quality evaluation is determined based on
percentage of weight loss, total soluble solid (TSS), total acidity (TA) and
storage time. The result showed that banana coated with chitosan can
prolong the shelf-life and help maintain the quality of banana. Banana
coated with 1.5% of chitosan exhibit less of total soluble solid and total
acidity and prolong the shelf-life. These findings suggest that chitosan can
be used as a coating agent for banana in storage for extending the shelf-life.