When a fruit ripens, it gets sweeter over time. Are the sugars already there for the fruit to get sweeter or how does it gain “sweetness” over time?

Question

When a fruit ripens, it gets sweeter over time. Are the sugars already there for the fruit to get sweeter or how does it gain “sweetness” over time?

In: 447

Answer 1

Sort of. Before the fruit is ripe, it is full of starch. Starches are basically long molecular chains of simpler sugars like glucose and fructose. Even though it’s essentially made of sugar, starch doesn’t taste sweet to us because the molecule doesn’t interact with our taste buds.

As fruit ripens, enzymes break down the starch into simpler sugars, and thus they become sweeter.