**5. Conclusions**

Our study suggested that ethanol, AsA, PMO, and TTO can extend the life of fresh-cut green beans pods under refrigerated conditions by reducing weight loss and maintaining appearance, chlorophyll content, firmness, vitamin C, TSS, total sugar, and TPC. Moreover, a reduction in the mould and yeast count and total microbial count during storage was observed. Ethanol was the most effective application, followed by PMO and TTO, for preserving quality during refrigerated storage at 5 ◦C up to 15 d. Although all the treatments had positive effects, the best treatment shall be selected based on particular requirement and economic feasibility. For example, if there is a problem of higher microbial load along the value chain, we recommend the use of ethanol as it was the most effective, followed by PMP, TTO. Moreover, further research is required to enhance the storage ability of fresh-cut green beans and other legume crops including peas and board bean.

**Supplementary Materials:** The following are available online at https://www.mdpi.com/article/10 .3390/foods10051103/s1, Table S1: Effect of ethanol, ascorbic acid (AsA), peppermint oil (PMO), and tea tree oil (TTO) on appearance, weight loss, firmness, total chlorophyll, and vitamin C of fresh-cut green bean pods storied at 5 ◦C for 15 d, Table S2: Effect of ethanol, ascorbic acid (AsA), peppermint oil (PMO), and tea tree oil (TTO) on total soluble solids (TSS), and total phenolic compound (TPC), mold and yeast (CFU/g), and total count (CFU/g) of fresh-cut green bean pods storied at 5 ◦C for 15 d.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, A.H.R.A. and K.F.A.; methodology, M.R.A., A.P., K.F.A., and M.M.E.-M.; software, M.M.E.-M., K.F.A.; validation, A.H.R.A. and A.P.; investigation, A.H.R.A., K.F.A. and M.R.A.; resources, M.M.E.-M.; data curation, A.H.R.A.; writing—original draft preparation, A.H.R.A.; writing—review and editing, A.P. and K.F.A.; visualization, M.R.A., A.P. and M.M.E.-M.; supervision, M.M.E.-M. and M.R.A.; project administration, K.F.A.; funding acquisition, M.M.E.-M. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** The study did not require ethical approval.

**Informed Consent Statement:** Not applicable.

**Data Availability Statement:** Not applicable.

**Acknowledgments:** We express our thanks to Said Abdullah Shehata, Cairo University, Faculty of Agriculture, Giza, Egypt for providing facilities via his running project "Increase export competition for vegetable crops".

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.

#### **References**

