How to check if a vegetable is bitter without eating it

Question

I want to know if my cucumber or ridge gourd is bitter before cooking, but for some reason, I can't eat or smell a slice of it to check. Is there any other way to check its bitterness?
(I'm hoping that there will be another way, for how else would factories that produce bulk food products use cucumbers or ridge gourds unless they have an army of workers whose job is to eat slices of each cucumber :-))

rumtscho · Accepted Answer

No, there is no other way. You have to taste it. Smell is a second best, but not as reliable, and almost unusable on a whole cucumber.
In recent years, there has been some quite good research on automated sensors for the detection of flavors or specified substances, and they can probably do it too. But beside all the obvious drawbacks, they are not magical, and they also need a slice of the cucumber to "test".
As mentioned in other answers and comments, companies don't have a way to escape that either, they use produce that is grown to be non-bitter (very interesting information from ChrisH how this happens for cucumbers) and they also have people whose job is to taste-test.

Max · Answer

To answer the question, probably not.
But if you have access to good local in-season vegetables, there might be less chance of being bitter than vegetables that come from half a world away.

Chris H · Answer

For cucumbers in particular, it's quite interesting.
Commercial growers use F1 hybrid varieties that produce only female flowers, and grow them in green houses or polytunnels, or under netting.
The reason for this is that in many cucumber varieties, the fruit from pollinated flowers is bitter; from unpollinated flowers it isn't. Picking reasonably early and ensuring even watering also helps.
When growing traditional and outdoor varieties you can remove the male flowers (identifiable by the stalk behind them) to avoid pollination, or buy all-female F1 varieties - but neither approach will help if there are male flowers growing nearby.

How to check if a vegetable is bitter without eating it

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