Changes during ripening of papaya fruit in different storage systems

Abstract The ripening stages of the papaya fruit can only be precisely determined by using many parameters on the same fruit. Eight physico-chemical measurements (water content, pH, °Brix, acidity, sugar content, neutral detergent fibre, proteins and minerals) have been obtained for Carica papaya Solo grown in the Canary Islands, during 1 month under different storage conditions (1: room temperature, 25°C; 2: domestic refrigerator, 10°C; 3: control chamber, 12°C and 92% H 2 O). Analysis of variance, correlation analysis and principal component analysis (PCA) were used to characterize the ripening process of this fruit. The statistical analysis indicates that pH. and °Brix are indices of the ripening of the papaya fruit.