Banana harvest maturity and fruit position on the quality of ripe fruit

There is an increasing market demand for smaller banana fruit. The way that this is being addressed involves harvesting some fruits on a bunch at a less advanced stage of maturity. Experiments were carried out to investigate the effect of age of fruit at harvest, position of the fruit on the bunch and different banana varieties on the speed of ripening and the quality of the ripe fruit at two different ripening temperatures after being exposed to exogenous ethylene. The maturity of bananas at harvest affected both the speed of ripening and the quality of the ripe fruit. Speed of ripening of fruit at 13°C was slower the more immature the fruit at harvest, but there was no effect on the speed of ripening of harvest maturity at a ripening temperature of 16°C. The effects of harvest maturity and position of the fruit on the bunch on peel colour and texture were significant but so small that they would be unlikely to affect the consumers' perception in a commercial situation. The higher soluble solids, flavour, sweetness and acceptability after ripening of the more mature fruit at harvest was sufficiently high that consumers could probably detect them.