Biodegradable active composite hydrogel packaging for postharvest climacteric bananas preservation

Climacteric bananas are susceptible to endogenous ethylene and temperature, resulting in dehydration, accelerated senescence and deterioration. The widely-used plastic cling films is particularly complicated due to their high consumption and non-degradability. Herein, this study proposed to fabricate a carboxymethyl cellulose/polyvinyl alcohol/pyrazoic acid (CPP) hydrogel for postharvest banana preservation. The hydrogel demonstrated excellent potential as a packaging film, including natural degradability (complete degradation within 50 days), high tensile performance, transparent visibility and biosafety. As a validation experiment, bananas in a 30 °C environment confirmed the effectiveness of CPP hydrogels in banana postharvest preservation. Compared with the blank control and CP hydrogel, CPP packaging film delayed the processes of browning, dehydration, softening, nutrients loss, ripening and senescence in bananas, thereby maintaining their commercial value. Accordingly, this study demonstrates the potential of hydrogel materials as an alternative strategy to climacteric fruit preservation and plastic film.