During harvesting, mechanical impact of fruit is almost inevitable. This effect is greater in the case of some species, such as papaya fruit, a highly spoilable fruit, for which postharvest handling can result in mechanical injuries that affect ripening and reduce the shelf life of the fruit, leading to large economic losses worldwide. However, limited molecular information related to bruising (e.g. mechanical) damage is currently available for papaya fruit. The aim of this work was to evaluate the effects of bruising on the proteomic changes of papaya fruit when applied at two different ripening times: an early (D2), and an intermediate ripening stage (D12)