How vitamin C in fruits varies

It's important to understand that the content of vitamin C in fruits varies in different cultivars of the same kind of fruit as well as with the level of ripeness of the fruit.

Sometimes vitamin C content of certain fruit is higher when that particular fruit is still slightly immature, and declines as the fruit hits peak ripeness.

With other fruits, the process takes opposite direction: it rises with increasing ripeness.

Consequently, we might come across surprisingly wide variation in results for vitamin C content between different investigators - because they were testing fruit at different stage of maturation or they tested a different variety.

Fruits that increase vitamin C with maturation:

• jujube
• cherries
• blackberries

Fruits that are losing vitamin C with maturation:

• camu camu, fruit of shrubby tree of the Amazon with the highest recorded levels of vitamin C of any fruit
• kiwi

Vitamin C content in live foods also decreases with storage; cool-storage is no exception.

Commercially grown fruits are picked green and their overall nutritious value is more or less poor.

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