As a result, there is an immediate need to create a new preservation strategy for saffron in order to overcome the current obstacles and meet all of the requirements. In addition to the humidity, environmental physical damage, light, and oxygen, each package should address the issues related to microbial contamination 9, 10.Ĭonventional packages such as paper and paperboard, aluminum foil, glass, low-density polyethylene (LDPE), high-density polyethylene (HDPE), and modified atmosphere packaging cannot fully meet the above-mentioned requirements 11, 12. Saffron packaging that is appropriate should preserve the biological, physical, and chemical quality of saffron, which can extend its shelf-life and lead to maintaining the safety and quality of saffron.
Therefore, on one hand, saffron is prone to contamination by a wide range of environmental bacteria when gathered, processed, and sold in retail marketplaces because of its exposure to wastewater, dust, and animal excreta on the other hand, by nature, saffron is exported and stored for a long time, which necessitates particular attention to “complete” sterilization 7, 8. Unfortunately, the stigmata harvesting technology is not sufficiently developed yet, and the conventional, mostly manual, harvesting process causes high contamination rates with different microorganisms. Saffron production requires a collection of distinct phases, ranging from harvesting, gathering, handling, drying, and packaging to storage 6. Saffron is well-known for its high levels of aroma, color, and flavor, which are heavily dependent on the presence of safranal, picrocrocin, and crocin. The most prominent producers of this spice are Iran, India, Greece, Italy, Morocco, and Spain. Apart from the high potential in the above-mentioned fields, the beneficial effect of saffron has been widely acknowledged as a multimodal therapeutic agent against diverse diseases ranging from depression, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, cardiovascular diseases, atherosclerosis, diabetes, and female and male reproductive disorders to numerous cancers 3– 5. ) is not only one of the leading multifunctional products in various food industries but also a major and arguably one of the most expensive spices in the world with diverse applications in food, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical fields. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop new strategies to overcome the current food product preservation challenges. The conventional food preservation modalities have inadequate efficiency, cause food waste, and often present threats to consumers’ health 2. These technologies include high- and low-temperature treatments adding chemical preservatives and various packaging systems 1. The ever-increasing demand for the preservation of healthy food products over long periods necessitates longer food shelf-life, sterilization of equipment containing microorganisms, and sustainable food processing and packaging technologies. The synergistic application of CP and CMC/PVA/nano clay thus represents a promising strategy for packaging, sterilization, and preservation of high-value food products. Overall, the CP-treated CMC/PVA/nano clay fosters saffron preservation, through contamination removal and quality maintenance of the food product. Compared to the separate uses of CP and CMC/PVA/nano clay, our results confirm the synergies between CP and CMC/PVA/nano clay cause complete inactivation of Escherichia coli bacteria, while not significantly affecting the concentrations of the essential saffron components (safranal, crocin, and picrocrocin).
Here, simultaneous decontamination and quality maintenance of saffron is demonstrated, for the first time, through the synergistic application of nano-clay-loaded carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC)/polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) nanocomposites (CNCs) and cold plasmas (CP). Common modalities do not offer lasting saffron preservation and it is urgent to develop novel packaging approaches from renewable resources and prevent packaging waste. Sterilization of saffron packaging and maintaining the quality of saffron content are the main priorities in saffron preservation.
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