The following is an excerpt from an email conversation between two of our staff members:
Question: I was very disappointed to cut open my pineapple this morning and find that it was rotten on the inside. I have been baffled by this many times before because I assumed that fruit should really rot from the outside in not the other way around - given that the outside is the point of contact with oxygen. Or does it rot from the inside out because that is where it would be hotter?
Answer: It isn't rotting it's ripening - pineapples ripen from the inside out. We tend to eat pineapple underripe believe it or not! Once the pineapple starts to break-down a bit the fruit is much sweeter. Left too long though, yes the pineapple will start to be attacked by moulds that will start a rotting process.
When a pineapple ripens, the pectins in the fruit break down - along with other cellular material within the fruit; this converts the sugars to starch.
There is also a protective mechanism in pineapple to prevent animals and birds from eating the seed before they mature - during this protective phase the pineapple produces a protein ingesting ennzyme called bromelain; so the outside stays hard and the inside ripens. This achieves the pineapple's ultimate aim to regenerate, before some pesky bird or animal steals the seeds!
http://www.acs.edu.au/courses/crops-courses.aspx
Question: I was very disappointed to cut open my pineapple this morning and find that it was rotten on the inside. I have been baffled by this many times before because I assumed that fruit should really rot from the outside in not the other way around - given that the outside is the point of contact with oxygen. Or does it rot from the inside out because that is where it would be hotter?
Answer: It isn't rotting it's ripening - pineapples ripen from the inside out. We tend to eat pineapple underripe believe it or not! Once the pineapple starts to break-down a bit the fruit is much sweeter. Left too long though, yes the pineapple will start to be attacked by moulds that will start a rotting process.
When a pineapple ripens, the pectins in the fruit break down - along with other cellular material within the fruit; this converts the sugars to starch.
There is also a protective mechanism in pineapple to prevent animals and birds from eating the seed before they mature - during this protective phase the pineapple produces a protein ingesting ennzyme called bromelain; so the outside stays hard and the inside ripens. This achieves the pineapple's ultimate aim to regenerate, before some pesky bird or animal steals the seeds!
http://www.acs.edu.au/courses/crops-courses.aspx
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