How to Tell if a Papaya Is Ripe and Ready to Eat

Food Shopping and Storing Food Shopping & Storing How to Tell if a Papaya Is Ripe and Ready to Eat Plus, how to speed up the ripening process with a paper bag and a paring knife. By Laura Fisher Laura Fisher Laura Fisher is a sustainability and health professional with a passion for good food, the outdoors, and fitness. Real Simple’s Editorial Guidelines Updated on March 30, 2023 Medically reviewed by Jessica Levinson, MS, RDN, CDN Medically reviewed by Jessica Levinson, MS, RDN, CDN Jessica Levinson, MS, RDN, CDN is a nationally recognized nutrition expert with over 16 years of experience in culinary nutrition and communications. Learn More Fact checked by Isaac Winter Fact checked by Isaac Winter Isaac Winter is a fact-checker and writer for Real Simple, ensuring the accuracy of content published by rigorously researching content before publication and periodically when content needs to be updated. Highlights: Helped establish a food pantry in West Garfield Park as an AmeriCorps employee at Above and Beyond Family Recovery Center. Interviewed Heartland Alliance employees for oral history project conducted by the Lake Forest College History Department. Editorial Head of Lake Forest College’s literary magazine, Tusitala, for two years. Our Fact-Checking Process Share Tweet Pin Email In This Article View All In This Article When Is a Papaya Ripe? How to Ripen a Papaya in Two or Three Days How to Ripen a Papaya Even Faster How to Slow Down the Ripening Process Papayas sometimes take a backseat to other popular summer fruits, but did you know that the sweet, creamy orange flesh is not only delicious, but incredibly good for you? The luscious fruit is packed with antioxidants and nutrients, and contains enzymes that can help with digestion. Plus, there are options for indulging beyond just fruit salad. You can use papaya in a summery salsa, as the base for refreshing ice pops, or even in some no-churn ice cream. Buying papayas that are already almost ripe is the ideal scenario, as you can take them home and have them ready to serve after an overnight stay on the counter. But like going to the grocery store for guacamole ingredients and being faced with a tower of rock-hard avocados, sometimes life gets in the way of best-made plans. Here’s everything you need to know to enjoy ripe papaya at home. How to Make Avocados Ripen Faster Using This Easy Trick When Is a Papaya Ripe? If you’re not familiar with papayas, it can be intimidating to know what to look for at the store, and what to do once you get home. If you’re wondering how to tell when your papaya is ripe and ready to devour, the thing to pay attention to is color. The skin of the papaya will slowly start to turn from green to yellow as it begins to ripen. When it’s almost fully yellow and a little soft to the touch, your papaya is ready to eat. If you wait too long, the fruit will begin to get overripe and mushy, and the flesh will be bland-tasting and mealy. How Long You Can Store (Almost) Anything in the Fridge and Freezer Getty Images How to Ripen a Papaya in Two or Three Days You can, of course, just let your papaya ripen naturally on the counter at room temperature. But if you’re in a rush to use the fruit for a specific recipe, or just can’t wait to dive in to the creamy, orange flesh, you have options. The best method is similar to ripening other fruit and requires only one piece of equipment: a paper bag. Simply placing your papaya into a paper bag and folding or rolling closed will ripen the fruit within two to three days, depending on how green it was to begin with. If you want to take it up a notch, add an ethylene-producing fruit like an apple or ripe banana to the bag to speed up the ripening process by a day. How to Ripen a Papaya Even Faster In a super hurry? Here’s where the papaya-specific instructions come in handy. If you have green papayas on hand that you need to use ASAP, get out your paring knife in addition to the paper bag. Carefully score the skin of the papaya with the knife vertically along the fruit. Score lightly and make sure to not pierce the flesh of the fruit, just the skin, or you run the risk of your papaya rotting before it’s even ripe enough to eat. The scoring helps the papaya release ethylene and ripen more quickly, and leads to an exceptionally sweet fruit. If you use this method, you don’t need to put another piece of fruit in the bag as the papaya is utilizing its own ethylene. We Put 3 Hacks for Ripening Fruit Faster to the Test—Here’s What Worked How to Slow Down the Ripening Process So now you’ve got a ripe papaya on your hands, but what if you’re not ready to put it to use quite yet? You can place a ripe papaya in the fridge until you’re ready to eat it to keep it from spoiling. The papayas will keep in the fridge for up to a week, but it’s best to use them within two days for optimal flavor. Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Tell us why! Other Submit Sources Real Simple is committed to using high-quality, reputable sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts in our articles. Read our editorial guidelines to learn more about how we fact check our content for accuracy. Schweiggert RM, Kopec RE, Villalobos-Gutierrez MG, et al. Carotenoids are more bioavailable from papaya than from tomato and carrot in humans: a randomised cross-over study. Br J Nutr. 2014;111(3):490-498. doi:10.1017/S0007114513002596 Muss C, Mosgoeller W, Endler T. Papaya preparation (Caricol®) in digestive disorders. Neuro Endocrinol Lett. 2013;34(1):38-46.