Edible coatings are a new promising approach for protecting food products from physiological and microbial deterioration. Coatings are based on natural edible polymers and respond to consumer demand for safe and environmentally friendly approaches of product quality control. To be applicable for fresh agricultural products, edible coatings have to answer a long list of various requirements. Our research group is developing composite edible coatings that combine the advantages of various natural materials and can benefit these multiple requirements. Two different approaches, blending and Layer by Layer (LbL) deposition are utilized to form advanced edible coatings. All the polymers we use are from natural sources and we utilize water as a solvent. We do not use organic solvents or synthetic additives. The method is cheap, simple and can improve the quality and safety of food products. The performance of the blended and LbL composite edible coatings was demonstrated on different fresh agricultural products. A blended chitosan-gelatin coating prolonged shelf life of red bell peppers from 14 to 21 days at cold storage and from 7 to 14 days at shelf-life storage. The alginate-chitosan LbL coating significantly prolonged shelf life of fresh-cut melons (up to 14 days vs the usual 5-7 days of storage) by slowing down tissue degradation and reducing bacterial and fungal growth. Carboxymethyl cellulose-chitosan LbL coating was found to considerably improve postharvest quality of 'Or' and 'Mor' mandarins, 'Navel' orange and 'Star Ruby' grapefruit. In all citrus species, the LbL edible coating provided fruit with shine, firmness, good flavor and prolonged storage-life.