[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 226 (Wednesday, November 24, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 66162-66164]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-30420]
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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Agricultural Marketing Service
[FV-98-305]
United States Standards for Grades of Oranges (California and
Arizona), United States Standards for Grades of Grapefruit (California
and Arizona), United States Standards for Grades of Tangerines and the
United States Standards for Grades of Lemons
AGENCY: Agricultural Marketing Service, USDA.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: This document gives notice of the availability of revisions to
the United States Standards for Grades of Oranges, Grapefruit,
Tangerines and Lemons. The changes will provide a minimum 25-count
sample to be applied to tolerances for defects, revise the grades to
make them uniform and consistent with each other and other recently
revised U.S. grade standards, and, delete references to outdated
industry practices and terminology.
EFFECTIVE DATE: This notice is effective December 27, 1999.
ADDRESSES: The revised standards are available from Kenneth R. Mizelle,
Fresh Products Branch, Fruit and Vegetable Programs, Agricultural
Marketing Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Room 2065, South
Building, STOP 0240, P.O. Box 96456, Washington, DC 20090-6456; or at
www.ams.gov/standards/frutmrkt.htm.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kenneth R. Mizelle (202) 720-2185.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Section 203(c) of the Agricultural Marketing
Act of 1946, as amended, directs and authorizes the Secretary of
Agriculture ``to develop and improve standards of quality, condition,
quantity, grade, and packaging and recommend and demonstrate such
standards in order to encourage uniformity and consistency in
commercial practices * * *.'' AMS is committed to carrying out this
authority in a manner that facilitates the marketing of agricultural
commodities and to making copies of official standards available upon
request. The United States Standards for Grades of Oranges (California
and Arizona), United States Standards for Grades of Grapefruit
(California and Arizona), United States Standards for Grades of
Tangerines and the United States Standards for Grades of Lemons no
longer appear in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR); however, they
are maintained by USDA.
AMS is revising the United States Standards for Grades of Oranges
(California and Arizona), United States Standards for Grades of
Grapefruit (California and Arizona), United States Standards for Grades
of Tangerines and the United States Standards for Grades of Lemons
using the procedures it published in the August 13, 1997, Federal
Register and that appear in Part 36 of Title 7 of the CFR.
The notice, with a request for comments on the proposed changes,
was published in the Federal Register on June 17, 1999 (64 FR 32666-
32703).
The petitioner (Sunkist Growers), which represents the majority of
citrus growers and packers in California, requested that the standards
be revised to provide a minimum 25-count sample applied to tolerances
for defects. In addition, AMS proposed several other changes to promote
greater uniformity and consistency in application of the standard.
These standards have not been changed within the last 34 to 50 years,
depending on the commodity. These changes are needed to bring the
standards into conformity with current cultural and marketing practices
and to promote more uniform application of the U.S. grade standards.
AMS published the notice in the Federal Register with an outline of
the specific proposed changes and provided for a comment period of 60
days, which ended August 16, 1999. No comments were received on the
notice during that time. However, a request from industry to reopen and
extend the comment period was received on August 16, 1999. The request
was granted, and the comment period was extended through September 20,
1999. A total of 2
[[Page 66163]]
comments were received, one from an organization of agricultural
product receivers and one from the petitioner.
The receivers comments stated, in summary, that they ``strongly
oppose the proposed changes.'' They suggested that ``The Department
shall define the terms `Injury, Damage, Serious Damage and Very Serious
Damage' but shall not interfere with the actual areas prescribed for
each defect as it is in the current definitions. The Department shall
also restrain from changing the terms, `FREE FROM' to `FREE FROM INJURY
BY BRUISES' in the proposed U.S. Standard for U.S. Fancy Grade of
Oranges, (California and Arizona).'' It is the receivers' contention
that the changes will allow 100 percent bruising plus 12 percent damage
by bruising in lots of U.S. Fancy oranges. AMS disagrees with this
assertion and feels that there has been some misunderstanding with
regard to the proposed changes. This portion of the proposal was not
made at the request of the petitioner, but rather was initiated by AMS
as part of its efforts to promote greater uniformity and consistency in
application of the standard. The definitions that were included in the
proposed standards are the same definitions that are currently used in
the instructional manuals to provide inspectors with guidelines as to
what constitutes a bruise. Additionally, these definitions are used in
other citrus grades. The definitions prevent inspectors from scoring
fruit with slight skin indentations as bruises when, in fact, there is
no injury to the skin or flesh of the fruit. Accordingly, AMS believes
that the proposal should be adopted. The revision also provides
language that is consistent with other citrus grades.
The receivers comments stated: ``When one thinks of a `FANCY
FRUIT,' the mind creates a picture of a perfect fruit, without
blemishes, free from any injury of any kind and of perfect
characteristic color an idea of the ultimate description of excellence
and perfection. This is the FANCY GRADE OF CITRUS that we know and we
want to keep it that way. Therefore these changes are unnecessary,
preposterous, not warranted and bias [sic] against the receiving sector
of the produce industry, and the consumer.'' AMS disagrees with the
commenter's assertion that Fancy fruit is perfect, without blemishes
and free from injury of any kind. Every AMS fruit and vegetable grade
standard provides for degrees of defects, as well as defect tolerances,
thus allowing for ``less than perfect'' fruit, up to a certain point.
The purpose of these standards, established by USDA in cooperation with
the citrus industry in 1948, 1950, 1957 and 1964, is to provide
attainable grading classifications that can be utilized by the entire
fruit and vegetable community, not to regulate difficult, if not
impossible, parameters of perfection.
The receivers are also ``vigorously opposed to the change for the
DECAY TOLERANCES at shipping point for each grade listed in the
notice.'' They note that ``this change would give an extra advantage to
the packers and growers.'' AMS disagrees with the receivers. The
proposed change would increase the decay tolerance to a total of 1
percent at shipping point, from a previous \1/2\ of 1 percent. The 1
percent shipping point decay tolerance is already widely used in citrus
and other fruit and vegetable standards. AMS can foresee no impact on
the receivers or the consumers in this regard because the decay
tolerance of 3 percent at destination remains unchanged.
Regarding the grapefruit standard, the receivers recommended that
allowable skin thickness remain at not more than \3/8\ of an inch to
meet the ``fairly thin skinned'' requirement and more than \7/16\ inch
to meet the requirement of ``excessively thick skinned.'' AMS
recommended a slight increase for skin thickness (\1/2\ inch and \5/8\
inch respectively), based on a fruit diameter of 4\1/8\ inch. Smaller
or larger areas would be allowed, proportionately, for smaller or
larger fruit. This new scoring guide is consistent with the recently-
revised U.S. standards for Florida grapefruit standard and will remain
as proposed.
The receivers stated they did not understand a phrase contained in
the grapefruit standard on ``Injury, (k),'' pertaining to green spots,
which reads, ``Green spots * * * which are green and more that \1/4\ in
number.'' This was a typographical error in the notice and will be
changed to read, ``Green spots * * * which are green and more than 4 in
number.''
The receivers contend that the proposed scoring guidelines for
creasing of tangerines, in all but the U.S. No. 1 grade, are too
lenient. AMS, however, believes that there is a distinction between the
severity of creasing allowed in each grade in addition to the amount of
area affected by creasing of any degree. In the proposed tangerine
grade, for each lower grade, a more severe degree of creasing is
allowed. This is the standard method of scoring for any defect,
regardless of commodity. Additionally, the proposed scoring criteria
for creasing also provides that no more than a specified area of any
visible creasing be allowed. This scoring guide is consistent with the
U.S. standards for Florida tangerines and provides an objective basis
for scoring this defect.
Also concerning the tangerine standard, the receivers contended
that scoring guidelines in the U.S. No. 3 grade (very serious damage)
are too lenient for the following defects: skin breakdown, scale,
sprayburn, buckskin, scab and green spots. The receivers recommended an
affected area of 20 percent of the surface before scoring. In the
proposal, AMS considered an affected area of over 25 percent of the
fruit surface for these defects to be scorable. The original standard
contained a scoring guide for these defects defined as ``when it very
seriously detracts from the appearance.'' However, AMS believes that
the receivers recommendation of 20 percent is too restrictive. Further,
the new scoring guide, which is consistent with the U.S. standards for
Florida tangerines with regard to virtually all defects, provides an
objective method for scoring, as opposed to the subjective method
contained in the old U.S. standard. Accordingly, AMS is making this
change as proposed.
The receivers consider the proposed skin breakdown scoring guide in
the lemon standard of allowing \1/4\ inch as being ``excessive.'' They
stated that \1/4\ inch ``represents 12\1/2\% on a fruit 2 inches in
diameter.'' They suggested an area not exceeding \3/16\ inch for damage
and not exceeding \1/2\ inch for serious damage. Their recommendation
was mathematically based on their belief that these averages
represented 10% and 25%, respectively, of the area of the fruit. These
percentages appear to have been based on an ``area'' 2 inches in
diameter as opposed to a ``sphere'' of 2 inches in diameter which has a
much larger surface area. AMS, when determining areas allowed for
defects, considers both the mathematical area and the appearance of the
defect for the commodity in question. AMS has concluded that the
scoring guideline of \1/4\ inch for damage, based on a lemon 2 inches
in diameter, does not allow an excessive amount of the defect on the
fruit, before it is scored as a defect. However, in light of the
receivers' concern with the serious damage skin breakdown scoring guide
of not exceeding \5/8\ inch, AMS has concluded that this could be
considered an excessive amount for this defect. Consequently, AMS
agrees with the receivers' suggestion of not exceeding \1/2\ inch in
diameter for serious damage by skin breakdown.
The receivers agree to the proposed change to create separate
shipping point
[[Page 66164]]
and en route or at destination tolerances for the commodities appearing
in the notice.
The petitioner submitted the only other comment received by AMS.
They stated, ``We strongly support proposed changes in the procedures
for sampling fruit to measure against defect tolerances. The new
standard calling for a minimum 25 count sample promotes greater
uniformity and consistency within the standards and affords a fairer
and more realistic evaluation of the arrival quality of fruit
shipments. Additionally, we view favorably the proposed change in
tolerance standard for a grapefruit rind thickness; elimination of the
juice content requirement for lemons; and a change of measurement of
surface blemishes on fruit as a percentage of the surface area instead
of a specific size definition of the blemish, allowing for a more
consistent means of measurement relative to the actual size of the
fruit. In general, the proposed modifications eliminate many obsolete
standards and criteria that are not reflective of modern production
conditions and the realities of the modern marketplace.''
AMS also discovered several typographical omissions in the lemon
standard. The section pertaining to standard sizing and fill (a) was
inadvertently omitted. Also, the letter designations for the defect
definition sub-paragraphs relating to bruising and skin breakdown under
damage and serious damage (h, i, j and k respectively) were
inadvertently omitted. Although the definitions remain unchanged from
the original notice, to eliminate any confusion, the letter
designations (h, i, and j) will be included in the final U.S. standard.
With regard to what should have been designated paragraph ``k''
(serious damage by skin breakdown), the definition is being changed
slightly based on the comments received.
Accordingly, further changes to the notice revising the United
States Standards for Grades of Oranges (California and Arizona), United
States Standards for Grades of Grapefruit (California and Arizona),
United States Standards for Grades of Tangerines and the United States
Standards for Grades of Lemons as published in the Federal Register at
64 FR 32666-32703 on June 17, 1999, are made as described above.
The revised standards are available either through the above
address or by accessing AMS's Home Page on the Internet at
www.ams.usda.gov/standards/frutmrkt.htm.
Authority: 7 U.S.C. 1621-1627.
Dated: November 16, 1999.
Robert C. Keeney,
Deputy Administrator, Fruit and Vegetable Programs.
[FR Doc. 99-30420 Filed 11-23-99; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3410-02-P