Modeling Microbial Population of Coated Sprouted Wheat through Zarrin-Giah Essential Oil in Chitosan Emulsion under Modified Atmosphere Packaging

Due to its health benefits, fresh sprouted cereals are considered popular food source. They are very sensitive and highly susceptible to microbial spoilage during transportation, processing, and storage. This phenomenon makes them potentially high-risk fresh products. This study aimed to assess the effect of emulsion coating consisting of Dracocephalum kotschyi essential oil (0, 50, 150, 250, 300 ppm)-chitosan solution (0, 0.3, 0.38, 0.63, 0.75%) during the immersion time (10, 25, 55, 85, 100 s) on the microbial properties of fresh sprouted wheat stored at 4°C. The Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was adopted in modeling the independent variables’ effects. The results shown that increase in the essential oil and chitosan solution concentration reduced the microbial spoilage. High concentration of Dracocephalum kotschyi oil decreased the fungus population after 12 days. Coating of sprouted wheat at optimized level of independent variables (0.62% chitosan, 57 ppm Dracocephalum kotschyi oil and 29.49 s immersion time) reduced the microbial and fungal populations. This treatment can reduce weight loss, and maintain tissue firmness, total phenolic, and ascorbic acid content of the sprouted wheat during cold storage, with no effect on its sensory properties. Our findings indicate that nanoemulsion coating based on chitosan and Dracocephalum kotschyi oil at appropriate levels could be beneficial in maintaining sprouted wheat quality and increasing its shelf-life.