International Produce Training

I recently received a question from someone who was a bit confused over which lettuce standard applied to which type of lettuce.  The confusion arises out of the many lettuce standards that are available. 

The Boston or Butter lettuces are inspected using the US Grade Standards for Lettuce.  This standard also applies to head lettuce, cello wrapped or naked.        US Grade Standards for Lettuce

The Leaf Lettuces, for Red Leaf Lettuce and Green Leaf Lettuce you would use the US Grade Standards for Field Grown Leaf Lettuce.  This standard is a relative newcomer, being established in 2006.            
 US Grade Standards for Field Grown Leaf Lettuce

Romaine lettuce also has its own standard.    This standard does provide tolerances for defects, but offers very few scoring guidleines when determining if a defect is “damage,” “serious damage,” or if it is even a defect.  US Grade Standards for Romaine

The final standard for all the field grown lettuces, is the standard for Endive and Escarole.  This standard looks to be the oldest, as it has not been updated for 45 years, being created in 1964.               
US Grade Standards for Endive and Escarole

Have you ever received a load of fresh cut produce, and after checking out a few bags you found some problems?  But now what?  How much discoloration are you allowed, how much decay is permissible?

Well, I will try not to confuse the issue, but reading the USDA Inspection Instructions and trying to make sense of what you are doing is a challenge. Let’s just say, who ever in the USDA came up with these inspection instructions must have had a great sense of humor.   Because of the complexity of inspecting Fresh Cut Product I have included a copy of the inspection instructions for you to download and read at your leisure.

First off, when inspecting cut or sliced products, such as carrot sticks, cauliflower florets, celery sticks, the inspection is sort of plain and simple.  Your sample would be all the pieces in the bag, but stop counting when you reach 50 count.  Look for defects, such and discoloration, flabby pieces, or decay.  Count up the defects and divide by the number you inspected to give you the percent of defects.   Three carrot sticks with decay, would equal 6%, if you looked at 50 carrot sticks.  If you looked at 25 carrot sticks and found 5 pieces with decay, you would have 20% decay.  You would use this count method only if the pieces are uniform in size and length.  Of course the USDA does not define what is considered as “uniform,’ so use your best judgement.  If they are not uniform in size then your inspection is based on weight, using a gram scale or ounce scale.

Now comes the tricky part.  How do you inspect salad mixes?

When you encounter the mixes, the inspection is based on a weight basis.  If you think this sounds like a tedious inspection, you are 100% correct.  You would take a bag of salad mix, dump out the entire contents, but inspect not more than 8 ounces, or 225 grams.  Spread the pieces around on a clear white board and begin to pick out any pieces that have defects.  Again, the USDA has offered no guidance as to what is a defect and what is not a defect, only suggesting you use your common sense.  Because this makes uniformity between inspectors a very difficult task,  I would suggest you work as team with your QA Staff, to help everyone get on the same page.

After you separate all the defects into little piles, such as a pile of discoloration, a pile of core pieces, a pile of decay, you would then count all the pieces in each pile.  Record your count, and then combine all the piles and weigh them as one group of defects.  Divide your total weight of defects by your sample size to give you the percent of defects.  You would report, for example, 12% defects, including 17 pieces of discoloration, 9 core pieces and 6 pieces of decay.

No matter if you are inspecting salad mixes or sticks or florets, the percentage of defects you find does not mean the product is in grade or out of grade.  Their are no grade tolerances for any fresh cut produce……except broccoli florets, but that is for another post.

Please click on the following link to download a copy of the Fresh Cut Produce Inspection Instructions.

Ugli Ripes and Vintage Ripes tomatoes are now being inspected in Florida, and are partially exempted from meeting  the Marketing Order requirements.  Simply put, the tomatoes must meet the requirements of the U.S. No. 2 Grade, except they may be misshapen and they may be slightly rough (as compared with the shoulders being smooth).

USDA inspectors are being instructed to report on their certificates the percentage of misshapen tomatoes and tomatoes being more than slighlty rough, even though they are not defects of the Ugli Ripes and Vintage Ripes variety.  In other words, the inspection certificate may report the tomaotes as failing to grade, but they will meet the requirements of the Marketing Order. (Federal Register-Tomatoes Grown in Florida)

Bottom line, if the tomaotes arrive with some problems, such as soft, decay, sunken discolored areas, etc., you can request a Federal Inspection and the tomatoes still must meet those tolerances of the grade requirements.  Ignore the shape issues and the ridges commonly found on these tomatoes….as they are not defects.

Take a look at the following peppers.  Can you identify the defect from this picture?

If you had said the pepper with the turning red color was the defect….I would have agreed with you.  But, something changed.  Sometime within the last few months “turning red color” (or full red color) on green hot peppers is no longer being interpreted as a defect.  In March 2007 a new U.S. Standard was developed for Peppers Other Than Sweet.  Whether it was an oversight, or an industry request, it is no longer a defect for green jalapenos, green anaheims, or green poblano peppers to be green.

Give up on the defect?  The defect shown in the picture is the scarring on the jalapenos.  Yep, what most would consider a good sign of the pepper having some “heat” is actually now being called a  defect.  

The USDA is currently revising the US Grades for Table Grapes.  Currently, the U.S. No. 1 Table Grade allows the following defects at market (destination).

• 12% Total defects, including
• 8% Permanent (Quality) defects, including
• 4% for Serious damage, including
• 2% for Serious damage by permanent defects, including
• 1% Decay

The proposed standard will allow an additional 5% for shattered berries, for grapes packed in bags. Is this allowance too much?   Table Grapes could now have 17% shattered berries and still make grade.  That is equal to about 3 pounds of loose or shattered grapes in an 18 pound container. Some people say shattered grapes are more susceptible to decay, while others say the loose grapes are still in the bag, the consumer is buying.

What are your thoughts.