You may be surprised to hear how many produce inspectors do not understand the tolerances when working with the U.S. No. 2 Grade.  First off, you will rarely encounter a container that is marked or labeled as U.S. No. 2, except for potatoes.  What you will routinely find are products being received as “Choice.”  Choice is not going to be found in any of the U.S. Grade Standards, as this is the industry term for their second pack, with fancy or U.S. No. 1 being their primary pack.

When you do receive product being purchased as Choice, you will have to use the tolerances, and defect scoring guidelines found in the U.S. Grade Standards for the U.S. No. 2 Grade.

Lets’ take a look at the cucumber standard as an example.

§51.2222 U.S. No. 1.
“U.S. No. 1” consists of cucumbers which are fairly well colored, fairly well formed, not overgrown, and which are fresh, firm, and free from decay, sunscald and from damage caused by scars, yellowing, sunburn, dirt or other foreign materials, freezing, mosaic or other disease, insects, cuts, bruises, mechanical or other means. (See §51.2227.)
(a) Unless otherwise specified, the maximum diameter of each cucumber shall be not more than 2-3/8 inches and the length of each cucumber shall be not less than 6 inches. (See §51.2227.)

§51.2225 U.S. No. 2.
“U.S. No. 2” consists of cucumbers which are moderately colored, not badly deformed, not overgrown, and which are fresh, firm, free from decay and free from damage caused by freezing, sunscald, cuts and from serious damage caused by scars, yellowing, sunburn, dirt or other foreign material, mosaic or other disease, insects, bruises, mechanical or other means. (See §51.2227.)
(a) Unless otherwise specified, the maximum diameter of each cucumber shall be not more than 2-3/8 inches and the length of each cucumber shall be not less than 5 inches.

Take a look and see if you can find any differences between the two grades.  They both state that decay is a free from defect, and they must be fresh and firm.  The color is different, fairly well colored versus moderately colored, as is the shape requirement, fairly well formed versus not badly deformed.  Also you will find the minimum length different, 6 inch minimum versus 5 inch minimum.  Did you find any other differences?

Now let’s take a look at the tolerances allowed for each grade.  The tolerances for defects, for the U.S. No. 1 Grade states:

§51.2227 Tolerances.
(a) In order to allow for variations incident to proper grading and handling in each of the foregoing grades, the following tolerances, by count, shall be permitted:
(1) For defects. 10 percent for cucumbers in any lot which fail to meet the requirements of the grade, including therein not more than 1 percent for decay;

Before we take a look at the tolerances allowed for the U.S. No. 2 Grade, most people assume if the No. 1 Grade allows for a total of 10% defects, including 1% decay, then the tolerances for the U.S. No. 2 Grade must be higher, maybe 15 or 20% defects, including 2 or 5% decay.  But no, the tolerances for the U.S. No. 2 Grade are exactly the same as for the U.S. No. 1 Grade:

§51.2227 Tolerances.
(a) In order to allow for variations incident to proper grading and handling in each of the foregoing grades, the following tolerances, by count, shall be permitted:
(1) For defects. 10 percent for cucumbers in any lot which fail to meet the requirements of the grade, including therein not more than 1 percent for decay;

So what gives?  What makes a U.S. No. 2 lower quality than a U.S. No. 1, if the defects and their tolerances are the same?  Scroll back up, to the comparison between the two grades.  Within the U.S. No. 1 requirement, the description for the defects states,  “ free from damage caused by freezing, sunscald, cuts and from serious damage caused by scars, yellowing, sunburn, dirt or other foreign material, mosaic or other disease, insects, bruises, mechanical or other means, ”  while the U.S. No. 2 requirement states,  “ from serious damage caused by scars, yellowing, sunburn, dirt or other foreign material, mosaic or other disease, insects, bruises, mechanical or other means. “

Do you see the difference yet?  The scoring guidelines for defects within the U.S. No. 1 Grade are based on the definition of damage, while the defects for the U.S. No. 2 Grade are based on the guidelines for serious damage.  For example, let’s say you are inspecting cucumbers, based on the U.S. No. 1 Grade and you are finding sunken areas.  If the sunken areas are a little bigger than 3/4 inch in area the cucumber would be scored as a defect, as damage, against the 10% tolerance for defects.

But if you were inspecting cucumbers bought as choice, or U.S. No. 2’s the sunken area would not be scored as a defect, unless the sunken area was larger than 1 inch in area.  And if the sunken area was larger than 1 inch, the cucumber would be scored as serious damage, against the 10% tolerance for defects.

As you can see, it is a little more complicated than most people believe.  Let me know if you have any questions.