Chitosan Maintains Postharvest Quality and Improves the Shelf Life of Fruits

Fruits are excellent food items, and people love them. However, they perish quickly after harvest, leading to a 30-40% loss. Even the situation is worse in the developing and underdeveloped countries. Therefore, the fruits require special postharvest care and management to avoid massive loss. Chitosan (CTS), the deacetylated chitin derivative, can serve as a nice postharvest management kit for fruits because of its biocompatibility, biodegradability, film-forming capacity, and antimicrobial ability. This review aims to evaluate the performance of CTS in maintaining the physicochemical and microbial properties of fruits along with shelf life. CTS decreases fruit weight loss, slows down the process of color change, and increases fruit firmness. It delays the changes of fruits' chemical attributes, like total soluble solids and titratable acidity, along with rapid loss of vitamin C. CTS prevents the attack of pathogens like fungi, bacteria, algae, and molds and reduces the onset of diseases caused by the pathogens. CTS can also effectively extend the shelf life of fruits. Overall, chitosan can serve as an excellent eco-friendly postharvest fruit preservative catalyst.