Fresh produce is recognized as highly beneficial for human health. The substantial changes in the life-style of populations and upturn awareness about nutritional aspects of dietary patterns, fresh produce has high demand. In developing countries, postharvest losses can reach up to 50%, and improper storage can cause serious food safety and quality-related issues. To fulfill the ever increasing demand of fresh produce, more attention should be given to reduce postharvest losses in addition to increase the production. Postharvest operations are one of the promising approaches for regulating food safety and security. Recently, various technologies have emerged to preserve the fresh produce and to extend their shelf life. However, consumers demand chemical free fresh product with excellent quality and nutritional profile. In this context, edible coating of fresh produce seems to be an effective approach to mitigate produce safety and quality issues. This review explores numerous types of edible coatings with their impact on quality attributes of fresh produce, as well as the benefits and main functions of each type of coating. This valuable information could help the processors in selecting the appropriate coating material for various fresh and minimally processed foods.

Oat bran has gained significant attention among cereal brans owing to its comparatively higher presence of dietary fibers and phytochemicals. The objective of the current research is to personify the nutritional and functional aspects of oat bran after yeast-induced (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) fermentation. For this purpose, a comparative study of raw and fermented oat bran was conducted to investigate the nutritional profile, antioxidant activity and functional characteristics of oat bran. Furthermore, pre- and post-structural variations on fermented bran were determined through scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results show that crude fat, protein and total dietary fiber (soluble and insoluble) contents were significantly improved after fermentation. Moreover, the post-fermentation value of soluble dietary fiber was increased from 5.01 ± 0.21 to 7.2 ± 0.1%. Antioxidant activity, DPPH-RSA and ferric reducing antioxidant power values of bran samples were also enhanced through fermentation and the anti-nutritional factor, i.e., phytate, was significantly reduced from 1113.3 ± 8.5 to 283.4 ± 3.5 mg/100 g in bran samples after fermentation. Furthermore, the surface morphology of fermented oat bran shows scattering and pores, while raw oat bran shows visible aggregation in SEM micrographs. Water-holding capacity was also enhanced up to 2.11 (5.68%) after fermentation. In conclusion, the post-fermentation results revealed that yeast-induced fermentation enhanced the physicochemical, structural and antioxidant characteristics of oat bran.

Maize bran is a good source of non-starch polysaccharides, having various bioactive compounds. In the current research, we extracted the ferulated arabinoxylans from nixtamalized maize bran (NMB) and non-nixtamalized maize bran (NNMB) and explored their biochemical composition (monosaccharides, phenolic compounds) and structural characteristics (FTIR, SEM and XRD) as well as antioxidant activity. Results showed that contents of ferulated arabinoxylans were 8.1 ± 0.04% and 6.8 ± 0.02 in NMB and NNMB, respectively. Moreover, the purity of arabinoxylans was 60.1 ± 0.8% and 57.04 ± 0.7% in NMB and NNMB ferulated arabinoxylans. Furthermore, ferulated arabinoxylans have higher arabinose, xylose and ferulic acid contents. FTIR spectra of NMB and NNMB ferulated arabinoxylans depicted the presence of polysaccharide compounds and the corresponding band was observed at 993 cm⁻¹, which is due to glycosidic bond vibration. In addition, absorbance regions of arabinoxylans between 900 cm⁻¹ to 1200 cm⁻¹ were observed. Moreover, SEM micrographs of ferulated arabinoxylans had visible rough and porous surface morphology. Further, ferulated arabinoxylans of NMB and NNMB did not exhibit any sharp peaks in XRD graphs, attributed to their amorphous nature. However, XRD 2θ showed peaks at 20.0°, which predominantly indicated that the material has an amorphous state with small crystalline regions in the sample, which shows the presence of xylans (small and narrow sharp peaks).