Defect and tolerance
Scale on the rind, and the insect still on it
Scale insects leave a small circular cover cemented to the rind. That mark is pest damage, which the citrus standard files with skin defects and permits in both graded classes. The animal underneath is caught by a separate line entirely, the one asking for fruit practically free from pests.
The figures
| What you are looking at | A roundish waxy cover firmly attached to the rind, about the size of the blunt end of a nail |
|---|---|
| Species in citrus | California red scale, Aonidiella aurantii, and related armoured scales |
| How it reaches the fruit | Crawlers settle in small depressions on twigs, fruit and leaves, then form a waxy cover; they are carried by wind, birds and picking crews |
| The mark under the standard | Skin defects occurring during the formation of the fruit, such as silver scurfs, russets or pest damage |
| The insect under the standard | Practically free from pests, a minimum requirement in every class |
| What it does at packing | Heavily infested fruit is downgraded in the packinghouse |
What it changes on an order
You inspect with a written specification in hand
Run the two counts separately. How many marks appear per fruit answers the class question; whether the covers are still attached answers something the class tolerances never speak to.
Your customer runs its own pest policy
Retail specifications are frequently stricter here than the marketing standard, and the space between them is where arguments breed. Get your customer's exact wording before you commit to a purchase.
You are pricing fruit from a block with scale history
On the rind it behaves like any cosmetic blemish and prices like one. It is also the only blemish on this list where the conversation is not purely about how the fruit looks.
What this note does not settle
- This covers how the marketing standard reads the mark and the insect. It is not phytosanitary advice and it says nothing about import requirements outside the European Union.
- Telling scale species apart by eye on packed fruit is unreliable. Where the species genuinely matters, it takes an entomologist and a sample.
- We publish no pest monitoring data for our plots and hold none confirmed by the grower.
Source: Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/2429, Annex I Part B Part 2 (specific marketing standard for citrus fruit), UC IPM Pest Management Guidelines, California red scale and yellow scale on citrus
Two clauses, one orange
Most defects get a single hook in the standard. This one gets two, and they work independently of each other. The blemish left behind counts as pest damage, sits alongside russets and silver scurfs, and is permitted in graded lots under the usual conditions about appearance and presentation. The insect itself is caught by the requirement that fruit be practically free from pests, which forms no part of the quality classification.
So one box can be comfortably inside its class on marks and outside the minimum requirements on animals, or the reverse. Two counts, two answers, two conversations. Inspectors who record only a defect percentage lose half of what they were looking at.
Your customer's policy bites before the standard does
Retail specifications tend to be harsher here than the marketing standard, for reasons that have nothing to do with how the fruit eats. An insect on a rind reads badly to a shopper whatever its species and whatever its state. Buyers supplying those chains end up applying a rule considerably stricter than anything the regulation contains.
Get the wording from your own customer before you commit to a purchase, not after a lorry has loaded. Where their policy is absolute and your supplier grades to the standard, a gap exists, and gaps of that kind surface at the worst possible moment. We hold no pest monitoring records to close it with.
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.