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Summary: Bananas are tropical fruits that are perishable and susceptible to fungal diseases, mainly caused by Colletotrichum musae. Antimicrobial emulsion‐based coating materials have been used extensively to inhibit the growth of these fungi and extend the shelf life of bananas. Targeted emulsion‐based film functionalities offer excellent mechanical, physicochemical and barrier properties and limit fungal growth kinetics. Antifungal compounds, such as essential oils or phenolic compounds, are added to emulsion‐based (wax/biopolymer) coatings to enhance their antimicrobial properties. This study set out to formulate a beeswax‐based emulsion for banana coatings using high‐pressure homogenisation (HPH) and hydrophilic food‐grade/organic coating materials. The particle size distribution, stability and mechanical properties of the film‐forming emulsions, water vapour and the oxygen permeabilities of the resulting coating were investigated. The most promising sucrose emulsions were tested as coatings on banana fruits to assess their efficacy against moisture and firmness loss during storage. Adding thymol (0.5% w/w) to the sucrose emulsions further enhanced the inhibition of Colletotrichum musae growth to its barest minimum of <20%. Emulsion stability was clearly enhanced using HPH while the best inhibition was obtained with a 20% diluted sucrose emulsion containing 0.5% thymol, with or without HPH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A semi-empirical model was developed to predict simultaneously time-temperature distribution inside the unripe banana and fungal reduction during the hot water dip, in order to simulate different process conditions for controlling banana anthracnose disease. For this purpose, the kinetic parameters of Colletotrichum musae reduction were estimated based on the thermal death time concept (z = 3.56 °C and D 50 ° C = 1044 s), and evaluated in different simulated media (unripe and fully ripe banana peel agar media). At the same time, a heat transfer model based on the Fourier equation was developed considering two unripe banana domains (peel and pulp). The comparison between the predicted and observed number of C. musae spores after the thermal treatment of unripe banana was satisfactory (coefficient of variation less than 10%), suggesting that the survival ratio is affected by the banana composition. The resulting model can be used to simulate different time-temperature scenarios, and to show how the parameter combinations may affect C. musae reduction in the unripe banana during the hot water dip process. • Identification of the kinetic parameters of Colletotrichum musae inactivation. • Development and validation of banana heat transfer model with two domains. • Validation of the fungal reduction in unripe banana under different scenarios. • Potential of numerical modeling for evaluating decontamination of other fruit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]