What you see: White or tan beads on your otherwise fine-looking blackberry.
What it is: White drupelet disorder. Most likely these berries just got too much sun!
Eat or Toss: Eat! The berries are fine. They might taste a little different, but you probably won’t notice.
Intense sunlight can lead to white areas on blackberries
Blackberries and raspberries are susceptible to white drupelet disorder, in which some of their little beads of fruity goodness aka “drupelets” never develop color.
You might find a bunch of white or tan drupelets clumped together or dispersed throughout a berry. Weather conditions, particularly hot and dry summers, can cause the discoloration. Direct sunlight can trigger patches of white beads, which is more common early in the season when there’s less shade. Indeed, the condition is sometimes called sunscald or sunburn.
While you simply purchase “blackberries” at the store, there are actually a number of slightly different varieties of the fruit. The type you get might depend on the season, which varieties do best in the growing regions closest to your home, etc. Anyway, some varieties succumb to this disorder more easily than others. One clue that you’re eating a more susceptible type is randomly dispersed (not clustered) white beads–that’s more likely to be the work of genetics. The blackberries in the image at the top of this post were grown in Pennsylvania and purchased at a farmers’ market in Washington, D.C.
White areas do not mean blackberries are underripe
Blackberries ripen from green to red to black. So, white drupelets aren’t a sign that they’re underripe. (Strawberries, on the other hand, do go from white to red. So, on a strawberry, white areas are less ripe.)
White areas on blackberries are harmless
There’s nothing unsafe about blackberries with white drupelet disorder, and they’ll probably taste the same as fully blackened berries. But sensitive palates may detect slight flavor differences.
For more on white drupelet disorder, check out this post about the same condition in raspberries.
SOURCES:
- White areas on raspberry. R. Jackson. EatOrToss.com. February 2023. Accessed July 2024.
- Off-Colored Drupelets on Blackberries. University of Missouri. Integrated Pest Management. July 8, 2020. Accessed July 2024.
- Fruit are discolored or have spots. Fernandez Small Fruits Program. North Carolina State University. Accessed July 2024.
- Fruit Development. Gina Fernandez, Amanda McWhirt, Christine Bradish. North Carolina State University Extension. Accessed July 2024.
- Strawberry: Recommendations for Maintaining Postharvest Quality. Elizabeth Mitcham. Postharvest Research and Extension Center. University of California. Accessed July 2024.
Pass the drupelets!
