Background:In the food industry, it is important to maintain the quality of food along with increasing its shelf life by reducing, eliminating, or controlling pathogenic microbial agents or food spoilage agents.Button mushroom is one of the types of edible mushrooms that have storage problems such as enzymatic browning, loss of moisture and softening of the tissue, which has reduced its shelf life.Expanding the use of food coatings and natural antioxidant compounds to increase the shelf life of food is one of the ways to increase the quality and durability of food.However, the direct use of plant essential oils also faces limitations, one of the most important of which is the rapid release of volatile compounds into the environment.Microencapsulation technique is a method to maintain the quality of sensitive components and a suitable method to produce products with original and innovative properties.
Aim: This research was done to investigate the effect of Shirazi thyme essential oil on shelf life and prevent enzymatic browning of edible mushrooms, and to investigate the effect of Shirazi thyme essential oil on the physicochemical, microbial, sensory and enzymatic properties of button mushrooms considering the problems of storage and shelf life of edible mushrooms.
Methodology: This experiment was conducted in the factorial experiment ofa completely random basic design (CRBD) with 3 replications in the laboratory of the Persian Gulf University, Bushehr, in the fall of 2022. Shirazi thyme essential oil microcapsules were prepared in concentrations of 0, 125 and 250 μl/l based on sodium alginate and cyclomethyl cellulose (CMC). 80 gr of cut button mushrooms with a diameter of 3 mm were placed in each replication and stored at 4 °C. The characteristics of weight moisture percentage, dry matter percentage, weight loss percentage, firmness, ion leakage, pH of a mushroom extract, soluble solids total, protein, phenol, ascorbic acid, appearance quality according to sensory
