How to Know When a Papaya Is Ripe

A papaya is good to eat when it is ripe.

Papaya is a heavy-tasting fruit with a melon-like flesh. In addition to being a tasty addition to your fruit salad, papaya is also a great meat tenderizer; in fact, it often is dried and used as an ingredient in powdered meat tenderizers. Papayas are at their most delicious when they are ripe. You can know if you have a ripe papaya or a papaya that will ripen just by looking, smelling and touching.

Instructions

1. Look for the yellow ring around the stem of a papaya. If the ring is there, the papaya will ripen eventually at room temperature. If the ring is green, the papaya probably will never ripen and will be inedible.

2. Smell the papaya. If the fruit has a slightly sweet smell, it is ripe and ready to be cut. An overwhelmingly sweet smell is a sign that the papaya is overripe.

3. Gently apply pressure to the papaya with your fingers. If the papaya is very hard, it is not ripe yet. The fruit yields to gentle pressure when it is ripe.

4. Cut the papaya in half. The fruit of a ripe papaya is soft and easy to remove with a spoon. If the fruit is hard, the papaya is not ripe.

Tips & Warnings

• Avoid papayas with a lot of brown spots or bruising.

References

• Practically Edible: Papaya
• Boise State University Health Services: Have You Ever Wondered How to Tell if a Fruit is Ripe?
• Bella Online; "Buying and Storing Tropical Fruit"; Sandy Moyer