Commercial grade
Class I citrus, and the decay it already allows
Class I is good quality with a closed list of slight defects, each permitted only where general appearance, quality, keeping quality and presentation survive it. The number worth knowing sits inside the headline tolerance: a small share of any lot may fail every requirement there is, decay included.
The figures
| Definition | Good quality, characteristic of the variety or commercial type |
|---|---|
| The condition on every permitted defect | It must not affect the general appearance, the quality, the keeping quality or the presentation in the package |
| Permitted defects | Slight defect in shape; slight colouring defects including slight sunburn; slight progressive skin defects not reaching the flesh; slight skin defects formed during growth, such as silver scurfs, russets or pest damage; slight healed mechanical defects from hail, rubbing or handling |
| Quality tolerance | 10 % by number or weight may fail Class I while meeting Class II |
| Inside that tolerance | No more than 1 % in total may meet neither Class II nor the minimum requirements, or be affected by decay |
| Size tolerance | 10 %, the same figure as Extra and Class II |
| After dispatch | A slight lack of freshness and turgidity, and a slight deterioration, are contemplated at stages following dispatch |
What it changes on an order
You found rot and you hold a Class I contract
The standard does contemplate decay here and caps it, and the cap is in the table above. Below that line you are in a commercial conversation. Above it, the wording is working for you.
You treat Class I as your default purchase
The permitted defects are a closed list rather than a general spirit of leniency. A lot showing something that is not on the list falls outside the class however slight it happens to look.
You are weighing Extra against Class I on price
Most of the gap is one qualifier and a doubled tolerance. Whether that gap justifies the price difference depends almost entirely on whether anyone downstream ever sees the fruit whole.
What this note does not settle
- Every permitted defect carries a condition about keeping quality, and keeping quality is the hardest property to judge on the morning a load arrives.
- Tolerances apply to a lot. How a lot is defined for your delivery is a contractual question, and the standard does not answer it for you.
- We state no class for our harvest here. That depends on the season and the grower has not confirmed it.
Source: Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/2429, Annex I Part B Part 2 (specific marketing standard for citrus fruit), UNECE Standard FFV-14 concerning the marketing and commercial quality control of citrus fruit
Keeping quality is a forecast, not an observation
Read the permitted defects closely and the same clause hangs off all of them. A slight defect is allowed provided it does not affect the general appearance, the quality, the keeping quality or the presentation in the package. Three of those four can be judged by looking. Keeping quality cannot: it is a claim about how the fruit will behave over the days it still has to travel, made by someone holding it on the morning it is packed.
That is why two graders can look at one blemish and disagree without either being careless. A healed mechanical mark is closed and stable; a progressive skin defect is an opening that behaves differently at the wrong temperature. The grader is not measuring the mark, they are predicting what it does next, and a load that left compliant can arrive looking like it never was. Cold chain discipline is what keeps that forecast honest.
The class everyone assumes and nobody writes down
Class I is the working default of the European citrus trade, which is precisely what makes it dangerous in an order. Because both sides assume it, it frequently goes unwritten, and an unwritten class is the first thing to become disputable when a load arrives marginal. The standard will not settle that argument for you: it defines the classes, and it leaves the question of which one you agreed entirely to the paperwork between you.
A usable order line carries four things beside each other: the class, the size, the format the fruit is packed in, and the moment at which conformity is judged. Leave out the last and you have agreed on a quality without agreeing where it is measured, which is the most common way a good specification still ends in a claim. Ask for those four together and the quote that comes back is comparable with any other.
Talk to the grower
Tell us the variety, the sizes and the delivery week you need. You get a delivered price and what we can commit to in writing, from the person who picks the fruit.
The grower handles enquiries. Response times are still to be confirmed.