This document discusses fruit ripening processes. It describes both visible changes like size, color and smoothness of the skin, as well as invisible changes like chemical composition, texture, aroma and metabolism. During ripening, starches convert to sugars, organic acids and proteins change, and fungistatic compounds reduce. Ripening involves loss of chlorophyll and production of carotenoids and anthocyanins. Fruit firmness decreases due to changes in cell wall composition and food reserves. Respiration patterns differ between climacteric fruits, which continue ripening and emit ethylene, and non-climacteric fruits, which do not ripen further after harvest. Examples of each type are given.