β-carotene is a carotenoid that has antioxidant properties, is a precursor of Vitamin A, and imparts the orange color in some fruits and vegetables. This compound is the major carotenoid in cantaloupe. Because of its health benefits, the β-carotene content in fruits is of interest to the food industry and to melon breeders. Current methods to assay β-carotene content in fruit are time consuming, expensive, and use hazardous organic solvents. In this report, preliminary data is shown for a method to quantify β-carotene content of cantaloupe puree using light absorbance measured with a xenon flash colorimeter/spectrophotometer. Absorbance of twenty seven cantaloupe purees from one variety demonstrated a linear correlation coefficient (R2 =0.7) with β-carotene content determined by hexane extraction/spectrophotometry. This linear correlation shows that this method may be suitable for quantifying β-carotene content in purees of fresh cantaloupe. Since pureeing the sample is the only processing required and no chemicals are needed, the method is rapid, inexpensive and produces no hazardous waste.