A fruit is the fleshy or dry ripened ovary of a flowering plant, enclosing the seed or seeds. Apricots, bananas, and grapes, as well as bean pods, corn grains, tomatoes, cucumbers, and (in their shells) acorns and almonds, are all technically fruits.

Quality factors for fruits include the following— maturity, firmness, the uniformity of size and shape, the absence of defects, skin and flesh color. Many of the same quality factors are described for vegetables, with the addition of texture-related attributes such as turgidity, toughness, and tenderness.Simple fruits can include fruits like apples, pears, plums, tomatoes, peaches. Aggregate fruits can include fruits like raspberries, blackberries, strawberries. Multiple fruits can include fruits like pineapples, figs, breadfruit, mulberries.