In recent years, several postharves

In recent years, several postharvest treatments such as hot water treatment, modified/controlled atmosphere packaging and gamma irradiation have been applied to overcome postharvest problems associated with papaya. Another technique that is gaining popu-larity as postharvest treatment for fruit including papaya is the application of edible coatings. Coatings can be defined as thin layers of materials applied to the surface of a food product to extend their shelf-life by means of controlled exchange of gases (oxygen, carbon dioxide and ethylene) that are involved in respiration and also by providing protection against moisture loss (Lacroix and Tien, 2005; Pavlath and Orts, 2009). Coatings can be produced from biopoly-mers which include proteins, polysaccharides or lipids (Gennadios et al., 1997). Plasticizers are combined with the biopolymers to modify the physical properties or functionality of coatings formed (Han and Gennadios, 2005).

Polysaccharide-based coatings including carrageenan have good gas barrier properties (Pavlath and Orts, 2009). Even though they exhibit high water vapour permeability compared to commer-cial plastic materials, these coatings are able to retard moisture loss from food products by acting as a sacrificing agent (Kester and Fennema, 1986; Vargas et al., 2008). Carrageenan is derived