Is a ripe fruit more nutritious than an underripe fruit?

There is a significant change in nutritional value as a fruit or vegetable ripens, but ripeness may not be the major factor in nutrition. ... read more

Picking fruit early, before it is ripe, stops the tree-fruit interaction before it ripens. This decreases tree investment in the fruit. So there is a difference between tree-ripened fruit and house- or store-ripened fruit. read more

For example, a 2004 study of blackberries in The Journal of Agricultural Food Chemistry found that the level of anthocyanin pigments, which may have antioxidant benefits, increased more than fourfold as Marion blackberries went from underripe to overripe (to 317 milligrams per 100 grams, from 74.7 milligrams); for another variety, Evergreen, they rose a bit more than twofold (to 164 milligrams from 69.9). read more