Data for Post-retail application of chitosan coating and UV-C irradiation: effects on strawberry shelf life, microbial quality, and consumer acceptance

Authors

• Jonathan Kershaw, BYUFollow

Keywords

Strawberry, chitosan, UV-C, shelf life, food waste

Data Set Description Summary

Food waste is a global issue with significant environmental, economic, and human health impacts. The largest share of household and retail food waste comes from fresh produce, much of which is still edible at the time of disposal. While previous work has investigated shelf-life extension technologies applied on freshly harvested produce, almost no studies have investigated the efficacy of these treatments when applied to post-retail produce. This study investigated the effect of UV-C exposure and chitosan coating on the quality, microbial load, and visual acceptance of post-retail strawberries. Strawberries were assigned to low dose UV-C, chitosan dip, or one of three control conditions (no treatment, water dip, or vinegar dip). Strawberries were analyzed for texture, color, weight, decay percent, yeast and mold counts, and fungal presence via qPCR. Consumer acceptance was determined using an online survey with photographs. Chitosan but not UV-C delayed decay and lowered yeast and mold counts while having minimal impact on texture and color. Chitosan-treated strawberries were more visually accepted by consumers, indicated by higher liking scores and greater association with safety and willingness to eat. UV-C exposure was largely ineffective. Prolonging acceptability of post-retail produce provides a meaningful target to reduce household and retail food waste.

BYU ScholarsArchive Citation

Kershaw, Jonathan, "Data for Post-retail application of chitosan coating and UV-C irradiation: effects on strawberry shelf life, microbial quality, and consumer acceptance" (2026). ScholarsArchive Data. 109.
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/data/109

Document Type

Data

Publication Date

2026-07-10

Data Collection Start Date

1-8-2025

Data Collection End Date

20-6-2026

Language

English

Link to Article(s)

TBD

Funding Information

Internally funded

College

Life Sciences

Department

Nutrition, Dietetics, and Food Science

University Standing at time of data collection

Associate Professor

Copyright Use Information

https://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.