The world is faced with a lot of challenges including lack of sustainable development and inability to feed its growing population leading to malnutrition. The issue of accessing high quality nutritious foods such as fruits has become a major challenge for many African people. Papaya (Carica papaya L.) is among the most popular fruits grown in Kenya and excellent in nutritional content. However, its potential has remained unexploited due to inadequate quality planting materials, high post- harvest losses and prevalence of pests and diseases. Researchers at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology developed promising papaya hybrids whose physicochemical, nutritional content and sensory characteristics have not been evaluated. Thus, the aim of this study was to determine the physicochemical, nutritional content and sensory quality characteristics of the new papaya hybrids and their control, Sunrise Solo. The physicochemical attributes evaluated included; total soluble solids, total titratable acid, pH and total soluble solid/total titrable acid ratio. While the nutritional content evaluated included (Vitamin C and β-carotene content) and sensory quality characteristics were evaluated. The standard AOAC methods was used to determine nutritional content and an effective analysis with 9- point hedonic scale was used on sensory evaluation. There was significant difference (P< 0.05) in nutritional content of new hybrids papaya fruits and Sunrise solo. The maximum and minimum Vitamin C content of 131.63 mg/100g and 52mg/100g were exhibited by line 6 and 8 respectively. β-carotene content ranged between 1.69 and 3.39 mg/100g as exhibited by line 1 and lines 2 and 8 respectively. The findings of this study revealed that the nutritional content of the new papaya hybrids exceeded the one of Sunrise Solo while their sensory quality characteristics compared favourably to the one of Sunrise Solo. Based on these findings, lines 1, 2,5,6,7 can be recommended for commercialization.

Papaya (Carica papaya L.) is among the most grown fruit crops worldwide with high economic and nutritional value. In Kenya, the papaya industry relies heavily on imported varieties and farmers' selected seed whose quality is not known. Therefore, the morphological and quality characteristics of mature fruits of eight newly developed papaya hybrids and their control, Sunrise solo were assessed using papaya descriptors (International Board for Plant Genetic Resources). The results showed significant differences in fruit sizes among the newly developed papaya hybrid lines and the control, Sunrise solo with Line 4 having the longest and heaviest fruits. Fruits from Sunrise solo, lines 2, 3, 7 and 8 ranged from small to medium in size, while those of lines 4 and 6 were large. Line 1 had the shortest shelf life of 4 days while Line 7 had the longest shelf life of 11 days. The total soluble solids (TSS) varied from 7.4 in Line 8 to 12.3% in Lines 5 and 7. Hence, most newly developed papaya hybrids Lines showed traits that were comparable to or exceeded those of Sunrise and could be suitable for both local and export markets. However, there is a need to evaluate and characterize the newly developed papaya hybrid lines in different agro-ecological zones in order to monitor the influences of the environment, pests and diseases.