Características de calidad de frutos de papaya maradol en la madurez de consumo

skin fruit color is the main characteristic to evaluate papaya fruit ripening; recommendations for harvest, commercialization and consumption, are based in green, yellow and orange color percentages. these subjective scales are difficult for interpretation. the purpose of the present work was to evaluate the main changes in appearance, firmness and total soluble solids occurring during postharvest ripening of maradol papaya fruits in order to define fruit characteristics that can be suggested as quality standards for consumption maturity. in november 2005, six maturity stages were identified and parameters such as fruit color, skin chlorophyll and carotenoids content, pulp firmness, sugars and total soluble solids were measured along them. in march 2006, fruit characteristics in consumption maturity of fruits harvested from two locations were obtained and compared with previous results. it was found that the consumption maturity stage is reached between 13 and 15 days after harvest when fruits were stored at 23±1°c and 75% of relative humidity. skin°hue values between 70 and 80, total soluble solids content between 10 and 11.5 °brix and pulp firmness between 4.7 to 6.9 newtons allowed the differentiation of two consumption maturity stages.