Abstract:As sea cucumbers have the raw material characteristics of high moisture and protein content， they are easy to corrupt during storage and transportation. This paper studied the delay effect of chitosan （CS）/gelatin（Gel） coating containing ε-polylysine （ε-PL） on the quality deterioration of sea cucumbers during cold storage. The results showed that the sea cucumbers in the blank group without CS-Gel/ε-PL coating had deteriorated on the third day of storage， and the total number of colonies and total volatile basic nitrogen （TVB-N）content had increased rapidly. CS-Gel/ε-PL could effectively inhibit the growth of microorganisms on sea cucumbers. After 7 d of storage， the total colony counts in the treatment group was 4.07 lg（CFU/mL）， and the TVB-N content was only 28.42 mg/100 g， still lower than the safety limit. In addition， sea cucumbers in the CSGel/ε-PL coating treatment group had high water-holding capacity and low production of objectionable odors，such as nitrogen oxides， short-chain alkanes like methane， inorganic sulfides， and organic sulfides. They also had good hardness， elasticity， and chewability. Sensory evaluation analysis showed that CS-Gel/ε-PL coating could effectively delay the phenomena of the dim body wall， disappearance of characteristic umami， loose tissue state， and decrease of elasticity of sea cucumbers during storage. These results demonstrated that CS-Gel/ε-PL has a good preservation effect on instant sea cucumber.