If you’re looking to buy a pineapple from the store, you might be wondering if pineapples ripen after you pick them. This is a common question as the products can be quite expensive and people want to pick the best kind of pineapple.
When buying fruit, it can be difficult to tell when pineapples are ripe. So you should make sure you pick ripe pineapples that are sweet and flavorful when you cut them.
There’s nothing more disappointing than cutting into a pineapple only to find that it’s very unripe. The result is very hard and acidic fruit that isn’t nearly as pleasant to eat.
Read on to find out whether or not pineapples will ripen after you pick them, how to tell when a pineapple is ripe and ready to eat.
Does pineapple finish ripening after harvest?
If you love to eat pineapples, you might be wondering if pineapples ripen after they are picked. Unfortunately, the reality is that pineapples don’t ripen much longer after they’ve been picked, resulting in many unripe pineapples in stores.
Most of the time, all kinds of produce are picked before they reach maturity. This is because it needs to be transported to the place where it will be sold and distributed to various grocery stores.
Once this is done, the products will most likely sit in the store for several days before they go on sale. This means that post-harvest produce can sit around for up to a week or two during these processes.
As such, companies must ensure that produce is picked before it is fully ripe so that it is not overly ripe or spoiled by the time it is in stores. Because of this, you often see products that are sold completely immature.
This is unfortunate for pineapples as pineapples are picked before they are fully ripe so they can be transported and sold. But because they don’t ripen much after they’re picked, many people will find that their pineapples aren’t ripe when they eat them.
So some pineapples may never ripen even if you leave them outside in a sunny spot for several days. Since they only mature so far after the harvest.
How can you tell if a pineapple is ripe?
If you go to the grocery store and buy a pineapple, you should know what to look for. Because you want to be sure that you are buying a pineapple that is almost ripe or already ripe.
Because pineapples don’t ripen much after you pick them, you don’t want to be looking for an underripe pineapple in the store. Especially when it comes to green pineapples as it suggests they are clearly not ripe and ready to eat.
The pineapple you buy won’t ripen much when you bring it home, so you want it to be already ripe or almost ripe. So there are a few signs to look out for to make sure you’re picking the right pineapple.
sweet smell
A ripe pineapple will often have a sweet smell around the base of the pineapple. You can usually tell by lifting the pineapple and smelling the bottom to see if there’s a sweet or fruity smell.
The underside is also usually darker in color, sometimes even a shade of brown. This often indicates that the fruit is high in sugar, which means the pineapple is nice and sweet when you cut it.
If your grocery store has a very good batch of pineapples, you will most likely be able to smell the sweet pineapple odor in that general area. But you should be careful and make sure you only pick out a ripe pineapple that has a strong and sweet smell.
Colours
Fully ripe pineapples are usually yellow and brown in color. They often get lighter towards the top and gradually darker towards the bottom.
A pineapple should be primarily yellow and brown, although there are instances where a green pineapple can ripen. The green pineapples are usually not ripe and indicate that the pineapple was picked too early.
Color is not always guaranteed, so don’t rely solely on the pineapple’s appearance. For this reason, when making your in-store selection, consider the other signs that a pineapple is ripe.
soft texture
Pineapples can be difficult to test to determine if they’re ripe because they have a thick, scaly skin that surrounds the fruit inside. So you can’t just squeeze them like you would a peach or kiwi.
Although a ripe pineapple should give slightly when you pick it up and squeeze it. Pineapples should never be very soft to the touch as this could indicate that they have started to rot and are far too ripe.
But a fully ripe pineapple will soften when you squeeze it as the flesh gives way under your grip.
Heavy weight
A fully ripe pineapple will also be heavier when you pick it up. The weight often indicates how juicy the pineapple itself is, with juicy pineapples usually being fully ripe.
For this reason, you should pick up a few pineapples to see which one weighs the most as it is most likely the ripest. The result is a very juicy and sweet pineapple that tastes just the way you want it.
Wrap up
If you’re looking to buy a pineapple from the store, you should know that pineapples don’t ripen much after they’ve been picked. So you have to make sure that the pineapple you buy is almost ripe or already ripe.
As there is a good chance it will ripen a lot by the time you bring it home and you don’t want to spend your money on an underripe pineapple that doesn’t taste as good.
