Esculent coating of spider silk enhanced the preservation and shelf life of apricot

A cobertura escamada de seda de aranha aumentou a preservação e a vida útil do damasco

Abstract

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), roughly one-third of the total food produced is lost globally. The major cause of this wastage is the perishability of fruits and vegetables. Therefore, researchers have endeavored to develop an effective preservation technique. Our study explored the potential application of spider silk as an odourless and edible preservative coating for fruits. The spider silk was collected from spiders reared in the laboratory, following by degumming and dissolution to formulate the silk solution. For this study, apricots were selected as the model fruit. The apricots were dip coated with the formulated silk solution and allowed to dry. In order to enhance the beta sheet content of the silk coating, the fruits were exposed to water annealing for varying intervals of time under vacuum condition. The effect of silk coating and water annealing time period on preservation of fruits was then evaluated morphologically and gravimetrically. The results showed that the fruits, which were used as control, exhibited a greater degree of water loss and suffered from fungal attack. In contrast, the silk coated fruits showed less water loss and were protected from fungal attack. Therefore, the study provides compelling evidence regarding the application of spider silk as a preservative coating.

Keywords:
spider silk; fruits; edible covering; perishable fruits; water annealing