Four radial profiles of M 31 in the near infrared taken with the 1.5 m infrared telescope of the Observatorio del Teide, Tenerife are presented. Three of these, in the J, H, K bands extend 20 kpc eastward from the galactic center, while a K band profile extends from the center to 20 kpc westward. These data are combined with published visual observations. Intrinsic magnitudes and colors were obtained after removing the effects of extinction in the Galaxy and intrinsic extinction within M 31. At its maximum, the latter is close to 1 mag in the visible, as calculated from the gas surface density within the ring. A bluer zone of stellar population coincident with the known position of the gaseous ring in the disc of M 31 is clearly shown. The photometric properties of the M 31 blue zone are comparable to those found by Prieto et al. (1985), for the ring in NGC 2841.