Association between fruit intake and risk of type 2 diabetes is inconsistent. In this study, we performed a meta-analysis of all prospective cohort studies to clarify the association between fruit intake and risk of type 2 diabetes. Relevant studies were identified by searches of the PubMed and Embase databases up to November 2013. The summary relative risks of association were obtained using a fixed- or random-effects model. A total of nine prospective studies (403,259 participants, including 27,940 with incident type 2 diabetes) from seven publications were included in the meta-analysis of fruit intake and risk of type 2 diabetes. We found that individuals in the highest category of fruit intake had a reduced risk of type 2 diabetes (relative risk 0.92, 95 % confidence interval 0.86-0.97, p = 0.003) compared to those in the lowest category, with moderate evidence of between-study heterogeneity (I (2) = 37.6 %, p = 0.12). There was an evident non-linear association of fruit intake with type 2 diabetes (P for nonlinearity <0.001). A non-linear threshold of 200 g/day of fruit intake was identified and the risk of type 2 diabetes reduced by about 13 % at this cut-off. Our findings are consistent with diet recommendations to consume about 200 g/day of fruits to prevent type 2 diabetes.