The quality loss of fruit and vegetables should be minimized to reduce food waste during retail. In that sense, sustainable and effective post-harvest techniques/technologies are needed, showing active packaging including encapsulated essential oils a high potential. In that sense, we studied the effect of different sized active packages (including β-cyclodextrin-EOs inclusion complex) on the quality of grapes, nectarines, and lettuces (as models of berry fruit, stone fruit, and leafy vegetables) during storage at 2°C (90–95% relative humidity). The active industrial tray showed the best effect on grapes and lettuce quality, as it reduced rachis dehydration and product weight loss (reduced by ≈50% in grapes after 30 days), reduced berry shatter (reduced by ≈40% in grapes after 30 days), highly maintained the physicochemical quality (soluble solid content, titratable acidity and firmness), and also reduced microbial growth (0.5–1.4 lower log units than non-active industrial tray). For nectarines, the package with the biggest active surface (large tray, 200 × 300 × 90) also showed the best-quality retention compared to smaller packages, showing nectarines within active large tray better microbial quality (0.6–1 lower log units than non-active large tray) and firmness. As expected, flow packaging of nectarines (using active trays) better controlled the product weight loss. In conclusion, active cardboard packages with greater active surface better preserved quality of grapes, nectarines and lettuce, which sensory quality was accepted after more than 30, 25, and 14 days at 2°C, respectively, contrary to non-active samples (~1 week less).

Mandarins are usually sold in bulk and refrigerated in open cardboard boxes with a relatively short shelf-life (12–15 days) due to physiological and pathological disorders (rot, dehydration, internal breakdown, etc.). The influence of a controlled release of essential oils (EOs) from an active packaging (including β-cyclodextrin-EOs inclusion complex) was studied on the mandarin quality stability, comparing different sized cardboard trays and boxes, either non-active or active, at the pilot plant scale (experiment 1; commercialization simulation at room temperature after a previous simulation of short transportation/storage of 5 days at 8 °C). Then, the selected package was further validated at the industrial scale (experiment 2; cold storage at 8 °C up to 21 days). Among package types, the active large box (≈10 kg fruit per box) better maintained the mandarin quality, extending the shelf life from two weeks (non-active large box) to three weeks at room temperature. Particularly, the active large box highly controlled microbial growth (up to two log units), reduced weight losses (by 1.6-fold), reduced acidity, and increased soluble solids (highly appreciated in sensory analyses), while it minimized colour and controlled firmness changes after three weeks. Such trends were also observed during the validation experiment, extending the shelf life (based on sensory quality) from 14 to at least 21 days. In conclusion, the mandarin’s shelf life with this active cardboard box format was extended more than one week at 8 °C.

The objective of this study was to analyze the effect of freezing and different culinary treatments (stir-fried and steamed) on the nutritional composition, bioactive compounds, and sensorial characteristics of zucchini. The zucchini was stir-fried for 8 min at 250ºC and steamed for 13 min at 100ºC. The freezing of raw zucchini did not significantly affect its nutritional compounds. The stir-frying process provoked important moisture loss; this being higher when zucchini was previously frozen. The content of ash, proteins and fats significantly increased in stir-fried zucchini. There was an important decrease in antioxidant activity and phenolic compounds when the zucchini was frozen. The antioxidant activity was much greater in the stir-fried produce in comparison to steamed and raw. Freezing the raw zucchini provoked a significant loss in its adhesiveness qualities and hardness. A lower hardness and adhesiveness were also observed in frozen zucchini after steamed and stir-fried, these changes were not being observed in freezing. The sensorial characteristics of previously frozen zucchini were valued less by the consumer as well as those that were steamed and stir-fried. The culinary treatment affected the sensorial values less and only better were observed in fresh steamed zucchini than the stir-fried.