So several things must happen. Until the seeds are ready to plant, the fruit must stay hidden to keep the seeds safe. To that end, fruit remains hard, sour, inedible, often an almost invisible green among the leaves until the seeds are ready to be sown.
When this finally occurs, fruit needs to enlist the help of animals, humans included, to distribute those precious seeds. To attract animals, fruit becomes brilliantly beautiful, sweet and luscious, with enticing aromas. Animals drawn by the gorgeous colors and smells pick the fruit and carry it away, eating the edible flesh but rejecting the hard, frequently poisonous, seeds.
Thus, animals distribute the seeds for the plant. To become beautiful and irresistible, fruit ripens. It changes in color, texture, aroma, taste, size and nutrient content. All fruit does not change in the same way, though. For example, taste changes that are so important to us can happen very differently in different fruit. Some become sweet when big starch molecules break down into sugars. Others become sweet by storing sugar sap from the plant itself.
This means that fruits such as bananas and apples, which become sweeter as the starches break down into sugars, ripen nicely after picking. Apricots, peaches, blueberries and other fruits that become sweet by storing sugar sap from the plant will never get any sweeter. They may ripen in color and texture but remain as sour as the minute they were picked. Fruits that never ripen after picking: Soft berries, cacao, cherries, grapes, citrus fruit, litchis, olives, pineapples and watermelons.
Fruits that ripen in color, texture and juiciness but not in sweetness after picking: Apricots, blueberries, figs, melons other than watermelons, nectarines, passion fruit, peaches and persimmons. Fruits that ripen by getting sweeter after they are picked: Apples, cherimoyas, kiwis, mangoes, papayas, pears, sapotes and soursops. With fruit that cannot ripen after picking, the best we can do is to select the ripest available.
We can use color, texture and smell as indicators. For example, raspberries accumulate anthocyanins, the compounds that give them their rich, bluish red color as they ripen.
For riper berries, select those with a deep red color. Color in melons can be deceptive. Cantaloupes become pale yellow-tan as they ripen, but Crenshaw and Persian melons may remain light green as they ripen.
When a banana turns black, is peeled and gives off a strong alcoholic sent, I have been told that it hasn't fermented because it takes longer to naturally ferment, but is likely the alkaloids I am smelling. However, I peeled plantains that had turned mostly black for which the whole stem of bunches was cut a week in a half ago to two weeks ago and they had a very potent alcoholic smell.
Last night there was only a bit of syrup. Are these signs of natural fermentation and the smell is basic alcohol without other additives like yeast or is it just an intense phase of ripening and a very potent alkaloid smell? Are plantains and bananas safe to eat at this stage?
They are still yellow, albeit a deep, deep yellow. They are very mushy but can still be sliced. There is very little browning, but only tiny sections on the surface of the mushy fruit. Is the syrup edible? The smell is also present in the syrup. I have read that there are probiotic benefits to fermented bananas as well. Would these have that? Already a subscriber?
Log in. Get the print magazine, 25 years of back issues online, over 7, recipes, and more. Start your FREE trial. Fine Cooking. Sign Up Login. Save to Recipe Box. Add Private Note. Saved Add to List Add to List. Once the concentration of ethylene reaches a tipping point of 0. One way to delay ripening is to use cold storage.
Low temperatures slow down the reactions inside the fruit that make it ripen. In fact, low temperatures have been used to keep apples crisp since the s, when apples were exported from the U.
Another method to delay ripening is more high tech. There is also a decrease in acidity as the fruit ripens and a decrease in bitter plant substances, such as alkaloids.
Last, as fruits ripen they produce complex compounds that are released into the surrounding air, giving a ripe fruit its pleasant aroma. Through these changes, fruits ripen and become sweet, colored, soft, and good-tasting.
A major concern with ripened fruit is that it does not last very long before it begins to spoil. The loss of firmness and the production of sugars associated with ripening can also make the fruit susceptible to pathogens like bacteria and spoilage. Over-softening of fruit is a major cause of spoilage during transportation, particularly for tropical fruits, such as mangoes and bananas.
Spoilage can be reduced by rapid transportation of fresh fruits, or by slowing down fruit ripening. There are several ways to slow down fruit ripening. One way to slow down ripening is by lowering the temperature. Cold temperatures above freezing are usually used.
Even though all fruit can be frozen, upon thawing many fruits lose their flavor and their texture and become very mushy. Raspberries are a possible exception—they can often be found frozen in the grocery store.
Normally, to freeze fruit, the fruit is first cut into small pieces and when thawed, these pieces can be used to make purees or smoothies.
The good news is that freezing tends to retain the nutritional value of the fruit. Several fruits, such as bananas, can be damaged by chilling and this limits this approach [ 2 ]. That is why we do not put bananas in the fridge! Another way to slow down ripening is by controlling the atmosphere around the fruit, primarily by increasing carbon dioxide levels and reducing oxygen levels. Fruit need oxygen to ripen, so if there is less oxygen in the atmosphere, the fruit will ripen more slowly.
One final way to slow down ripening is to block the action of ethylene. Ethylene is a hormone required to trigger fruit ripening, and it can be blocked by using synthetic compounds, such as 1-methyl-cyclo-propene 1-MCP.
However, in some fruits, ethylene levels shoot up when the fruit starts ripening. Based on their response to ethylene during maturation, fruits can be classified into two major groups. The first group is called the climacteric fruits, in which ripening are accompanied by a burst of ethylene.
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