Citral-releasing active patches preserve the overall quality and extend strawberry shelf-life

• Citral-releasing active packaging extends shelf life of fresh strawberries. • Minimal inhibitory concentration of citral against Botrytis cinerea was 0.08 µL/cm 3 . • Citral-releasing packaging reduces respiration rate, weight loss and microbial growth. • Strawberries packaged in citral-embedded materials were marketable for 9 d at 4 °C. Strawberries are known for their high perishability and susceptibility to rapid deterioration. Conventional packaging methods often fall short in extending the shelf-life of strawberries while preserving their desirable overall quality. This study explores a novel way to extend strawberry shelf-life by incorporating plastic-based patches embedded with citral, a natural substance present in citrus essential oils. The doses of active citral for patch application were tested in vitro and in vivo using antifungal assays against Botrytis cinerea . Two citral concentrations (0.08 and 0.16 µL/mL) were used to prepare the active patches which were, prior to storage, attached to the packages containing the strawberries. Afterward, the fruit was stored for 9 d at 4 °C, and quality evaluated throughout storage. Results showed that the active packaging with citral-embedded patches, regardless of the concentration, maintained the consumer acceptability level significantly higher than controls with strawberries, exhibiting nearly 3 additional days of shelf-life. Furthermore, active packaging effectively mitigated respiration rate, weight loss, and microbial growth, thus delaying senescence. Overall, this study shows that the developed packaging containing citral-patches presents a promising strategy to extend strawberry shelf-life.