The fruit is a fleshy berry and has various shapes and sizes. The cactus pear fruit can be a rainbow of colours from white, green, yellow, orange, red, purple to brown.

The fruit’s pulp colour may or may not correspond with the peel’s colour and may range from yellow to red and green. The pulp contains mainly water (84% to 90%) and sugars such as glucose and fructose (10 to 15%). In research, the variety of cultivars cause variability in data collected from the fruit. In general, the thick peel (pericarp) accounts for 33 to 55% of the fruit and the soft and juicy pulp for 45 to 67% of the fruit. The weight of the whole fruit ranges from 67 to 216 g depending on cultivar, origin and climate.

The fruit is generally not acidic with pH values of 5.3 to 7.1 (0.05 to 0.18% citric acid). The sugar content ranges from 10 – 17°Brix and are mainly reducing types. Glucose is the predominant sugar and fructose second, which is the reason for the very sweet taste of the fruit. Vitamin C is a major vitamin in cactus pears while smaller amounts of vitamin B1, B6, niacin, riboflavin and pantothenic acid are present in the fruit.
The fruit pulp is a good source of minerals especially calcium, potassium and magnesium. The total caloric value is 50 kcal/100 g, which is comparable to that of other fruit such as pears, apricots and oranges.