FRUIT MATURITY, RIPENING, AND QUALITY RELATIONSHIPS

All fruits, with a few exceptions (such as pears, avocados, and bananas), reach their best eating quality when allowed to ripen on the plant. However, some fruits are usually picked mature but unripe so that they can withstand the postharvest handling system when shipped long-distance. Most currently used maturity indices are based on a compromise between those indices that would ensure the best eating quality to the consumer and those that provide the needed flexibility in marketing.

Fruits can be divided into two groups: 1) fruits that are not capable of continuing their ripening process once removed from the plant, and 2) fruits that can be harvested mature and ripened off the plant. Group 1 includes berries, cherry, citrus fruits, grape, lychee, pineapple, pomegranate, and tamarillo. Group 2 includes apple, apricot, avocado, banana, cherimoya, guava, kiwifruit, mango, nectarine, papaya, passion fruit, pear, peach, persimmon, plum, quince, sapodilla, sapote.

Group 1 fruits produce very small quantities of ethylene and do not respond to ethylene treatment except in terms of degreening (removal of chlorophyll); these should be picked when fully-ripe to ensure good flavour quality. Fruits in Group 2 produce much larger quantities of ethylene in association with their ripening, and exposure to ethylene will result in faster and more uniform ripening.

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