Abstract:
Papaya is a commercial fruit crop in many tropical regions of the world. The fruit is a rich source of vitamins, minerals and dietary antioxidants. Short postharvest life and susceptibilities to physical damage, water loss, chilling injury, diseases, and insect-pests are the major postharvest constraints for papaya fruit. This chapter reviews the economic importance, postharvest physiology, maturity indices and effects of pre and postharvest factors on papaya fruit quality. Postharvest quality and marketing losses attributed to non-pathological, pathological and insect-pests problems are discussed. Finally, the processing of fruit into fresh-cut and other products is reviewed.