Biodegradable Films Made from Green Banana Starch for Post-Harvest Preservation of “Itália” Grapes: Sustainability, Functionality, and Innovation in Brazilian Fruit Farming

Films and coatings have been considered one of the technologies with the potential to increase the shelf life of food, ensuring microbiological quality, and protecting food from the influence of external factors, being a more effective system for preserving food quality and making it more attractive to consumers. The objective of this research is to develop and characterize the use of biodegradable films based on banana starch as a potential coating to increase the post-harvest life of plantains. Green bananas of the Pacovan, Prata, and Prata Anã varieties will be separated into batches and washed in running water to remove dirt and other foreign matter. They will then be immersed in a 200 ppm sodium hypochlorite solution for sanitization and manual peeling. Terra Maranhão plantains from a commercial plantation located in the municipality of Bananeiras will be harvested manually, using good agricultural practices, in the morning at the stage of commercial maturity through visual selection, by observing the light green color of the peel and yellow color of the pulp, discarding fruits that show symptoms of disease and deformity. The fruits will be transported 24 h after harvest in insulated boxes to the Post-Harvest Physiology Laboratory, where they will undergo post-harvest treatments.