Development of Pectin/Gelatin/Glutathione/Calcium Chloride Crosslinked Hybrid Composite Antioxidant Edible Coatings for the Preservation of Local Butter

Abstract Given the vulnerability of butter to rancidity there continues to be a drive to develop active edible coatings to preserve the characteristics and prolong shelf‐life of butter. In this work, inspiration is taken from biomedical and pharmaceutical research and crosslinked pectin‐based edible composite coatings are developed for the preservation of butter. Pectin is blended with gelatin and glutathione to induce antioxidant characteristics and crosslinked with calcium chloride to overcome the problem of moisture sensitivity of neat pectin‐based coatings. The blended active edible coatings exhibit significant preservation characteristics in coated butter in terms of peroxide, acid, and fatty acid values during the 60 days storage period with 15 days examination intervals in a calcium chloride dose dependent response. Furthermore, the developed coatings exhibit significantly improved antioxidant properties as assessed from β‐carotene and 2,2‐diphenyl‐1‐picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) activity in coated samples compared to control prolonging the shelf‐life of coated butter. For the first time, it is demonstrated that pectin can be crosslinked to prepare edible coatings and extent of crosslinking can directly influence coating performance in food preservation. The obtained results are believed to be significant to the field and have the potential to disrupt the status quo in edible coating research and inspire commercial development of such coatings.