Efficient Preservation of Perishable Fruits by Erasable Metal-Organic Frameworks

With the worldwide crisis of food shortages, reducing postharvest losses in fruits and vegetables faces one of the greatest global challenges of contemporary food and agriculture. This study presented an erasable metal-organic framework (MOF)-based coating designed for dual functionality in combating foodborne pathogens and ethylene management. A MOF-stabilized Pickering emulsion is developed to create a uniform and erasable protective coating on fruit surfaces through a simple dip-coating process. The coating demonstrated an exceptional thermal/mechanical stability, a broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity against phytopathogenic fungi (Botrytis cinerea, Penicillium italicum, and Penicillium digitatum) and bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli), and an effective ethylene scavenging capacity through the synergistic π-complexation and hydrogen bonding interactions. As a protective layer, the coating reduced fruit weight loss by only 19.7% even after 10 days and captured ethylene production by 72.3%, markedly outperforming both commercial polyvinyl chloride films (20.8%) and the carboxymethyl chitosan-based coating (45.6%). Metabolomics revealed the ability of the coating to downregulate ripening-associated pathways, including protein digestion, amino acid metabolism, and glycolysis. Safety assessments confirmed the residue-free washability of the coating, highlighting its sustainability for prolonging shelf life and mitigating postharvest losses.