I was cutting up a mango, when I noticed some black threads inside.
What are those?
They are quite tough, brown-black, about an inch long (2.5 cm):
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It's an indication that the fruit has started to rot.
When dark spots start appearing on the side of a mango, it's starting to rot. A mango can rot from the pit, the skin, or from the non-stem end. Any black fibers also indicate that the fruit has started to rot, and at that point, you need to toss it into the trash.
Yes, the above is probably being overcautious in stating “any black fibers? → trash! It's from a “Dummies” book after all. I couldn't really find another good reference, but I'm sure you can make the distinction between a piece of fruit that has a small brown spot and one that's black and shriveled.
Still, the color of the fibers is a result of the late ripening/rotting process of the mango, rather than a result of an earlier stage in its growth, but having eaten this mango with the one, tiny black fiber shown in her picture, I don't really expect to read Mien's obituary on this site tomorrow.
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7I don't think it's *rotten* at that point. Overripe, sure. But, though I don't have a source off the top of my head, anecdotally, I've eaten *tons* of overripe mangos containing a few black fibers, and they tasted great and caused me no problems. – Cascabel May 30 '12 at 18:03
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1Overripe mangoes are good for making mango ice-cream (the rotten sections need to be thrown off though). – Nav Jun 03 '12 at 15:44
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It appears that Mien survived at least 5 years after eating this mango. – Philipp Jun 26 '22 at 18:27
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Black streaks in mango. Please read the following articles from www.abc.net.au:
These articles identify the presence of well delineated black veins in otherwise good, fresh mango as a "disease" of the fruit. It turns out that this is caused by the mango trees lacking sufficient fertilizer.
arieljannai
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John
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1Welcome to Seasoned Advice! Whilst this may theoretically answer the question, [it would be preferable](http://meta.stackoverflow.com/q/8259) to include the essential parts of the answer here, and provide the link for reference. This time I added two sentences for you, but you may expand it too, to make your answer better. – rumtscho Jun 22 '14 at 15:18
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1That's actually very good information, +1. Links go bad and not everyone likes to click them. To make this a stellar answer, take rumtscho's advice! – Jolenealaska Jun 22 '14 at 15:32
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1Also sidesteps the question whether fruit so affected are inedible and/or harmful to eat... – rackandboneman Nov 22 '17 at 10:05
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Recent evidence seems to indicate this is caused by [bacteria infecting the fruit](https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2019-03-19/resin-canal-discolouration-breakthrough-for-mango-industry/10912520) – misterManSam Jan 04 '21 at 06:00
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It's not mango rot its actually a disease called Resin Canal which causes black fibers to appear in mangoes, there is no idea what causes the problem
Raimond Bin
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Welcome to Seasoned Advice and thanks for taking the time to contribute an answer! Here is some help on [how to write a good answer](https://cooking.stackexchange.com/help/how-to-answer). Can you cite the source of your information? – Ess Kay Mar 22 '19 at 14:00
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Just to keep this thread accurate and current, the black fibers/veins in the picture are known as Resin Canal Disease, or RCD. Although unappealing, they are safe to eat, as described in this article: https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2019-03-19/resin-canal-discolouration-breakthrough-for-mango-industry/10912520
Researched in 2020
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Mango industry discovers highly infectious bacteria as cause of ugly veins of resin canal discolouration
Matteo
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I also would like to know why the best answer on here has the least points, in fact one minus (see below the answer of Raimond!) – Matteo May 30 '19 at 11:59