Effect of Chitosan and Chitosan-Nanoparticles as Active Coating on Microbiological Characteristics of Fish Fingers

Abstract

The effect of different concentrations of chitosan and chitosan nanoparticles as active coating on microbiological characteristics of fish fingers during frozen storage at -18°C were studied. Results indicated that, uncoated fish fingers (T1) and that coated with commercial edible coating (T2) had higher total bacterial count (TBC), psychrophilic bacteria, and coliform bacteria, proteolytic bacteria when compared with fish fingers coated with either chitosan or chitosan nanoparticles. Moreover, the lowest counts of abovementioned microorganisms were recorded for chitosan nanoparticles treatments during frozen storage at – 18 C up to 6 months. The flow behavior of the edible coating solutions prepared from chitosan and chitosan nanoparticles was studied; it was observed that all samples of edible coating solutions exhibited non-Newtonian pseudoplastic behavior for all concentrations studied.