EC QUALITY STANDARDS FOR BANANAS

Mrs. Bickelmann, Bundesanstalt für Landwirtschaft und Ernährung

The EC quality standards for bananas have come into force on June 1st, 1995. They are technical norms, defining the minimum standards for bananas marketed within the Community. They apply to bananas from all producer countries, that is to say to bananas from EC members and non-members alike. They only apply to the Cavendish and Gros Michel banana fruit, and only to green, unripe fruit.

The EC quality standards for bananas cover the following chapters:

• minimum standards
• quality
• size
• size and quality tolerances
• presentation
• labelling.

The following is a short list of some of the standards.

Whole: Every single finger of a package must be undamaged. This applies to damage which has occurred during the harvesting and processing as well as during the loading and unloading.

Healthy: The single clusters must not bear any sign of disease, physiological defects or rottenness.

Clean: The single fingers must be clean, which means they must be free from earth, soot etc..

Undamaged stems: The stems must neither be torn nor cut, nor may they become cracked during the packaging, transport, loading or unloading. Fresh cracks can be seen as dark green lines and are not considered to be defects. Old cracks ("broken feeder lines") are darkly coloured and are classified as not conforming with the standards.

Healthy and smoothly cut crown: The crown must be healthy. If there are signs of crown rottenness, the respective part is cut off in 3.5 mm thick slices. If there are still signs of rottenness after two slices, all fingers of the cluster are classified as having rotten crowns.

Moreover, all fingers of the cluster must stick tightly in the crown. The sides of the crown must be cut off smoothly, because torn crowns increase the risk of microorganisms entering the fruit, and thus the risk of secondary infections.

Abnormal curvature: Whether the curvature of a fruit is abnormal depends on the curvature of the neighbouring fruits within the cluster. In order to ensure safe packaging, all fruits of one cluster or one hand must have the same curvature.

Bruises: The quality standards only apply to bruises which diminish the quality of the fruit pulp.

Chill damage or Under Peel Discolouration: There are four levels of discolouration: very light, light, medium and grave. Bananas with medium discolouration, which hardly contain any liquid, and grave discolouration may not be marketed within the EC.

Slightly ripened bananas/turnings: Hands or clusters which have ripened during the transport induce the uncontrolled ripening of the entire package. Bananas from packages including ripe or ripening fruits can obtain an appropriate level of ripeness and can thus be consumed. This is why ripe or slightly ripened fruits are tolerated within the 10% tolerance for class 2 bananas, and within the 2% tolerance for class 1 bananas. Although the trade could theoretically sort out ripened clusters, these clusters are usually destroyed for economic reasons.

The EC norms do not apply to bananas that have the same degree of ripeness. These fruits are therefore not controlled. This also goes for ripe bananas which have been transported by plane.

Latex: clear, non-discoloured latex is tolerated in all classes. Brown, dry latex is tolerated to a certain extent in class 1 and 2. Oily, wet latex is not tolerated in any class.

Thrips damage: puncture and suction marks caused by thrips are tolerated to a certain extent in class 1 and 2.

Damaged peel: Damage to the peel occurs when the bananas grow. This includes traces of rubbing, scratches, traces of eating caused by insects and damage caused by thrips.

The EC norms tolerate damage that does not exceed a total of 1 cm2 per finger for an Extra class banana, 2 cm2 for a class 1 banana and 4 cm2 for a class 2 banana.

Size: The length of a banana is measured along the length of the curvature from the tip up to the beginning of the stem in the crown. One reference finger is measured. It must be at least 14 cm long. In the context of size tolerances, though, a length of 13 cm is also tolerated.

Labelling: Each package must contain information about the packer (with name and adress), the sort and the type (Cavendish), the producer country, the class, the net weight and the size, which means the minimum size to be found within the package. An indication of the maximum size is not obligatory.

Tolerances: All minimum standards must be fulfilled in the Extra class and in class 1. The exceptions mentioned in the context of quality standards are interpreted in such a way that three or four fingers which do not comply with the minimum standards are tolerated if twenty packages are checked. In other cases, the tolerances only apply to bananas which are not affected in their appearance or durability, and which can be consumed.

The EC standards for bananas are in compliance with the Codex Norm for Bananas which the Codex Alimentarius Commission agreed upon at its 22nd session in Geneva from June 23rd to June 28th, 1997. The Codex Norm also contains further, general requirements concerning heavy metals and hygiene, that is to say standards that go beyond mere trade norms and touch health-related issues.

Control: The EC control regulations, or VO (EC) Nr 2898/95, have come into force on July 1st, 1996. Controls are obligatory regardless of the bananas’ origin. Community bananas must be controlled in their producer country before being loaded and sent to a destination within the EC, and also when they are unloaded, which does not free producers and exporters from their duty to check their bananas in the packing stations and/or in their ports.

The control regulations make it possible to free reliable importers from a regular state control in their ports. This possibility is successfully taken advantage of in European ports. The respective importers carry through controls within their own companies and see to it that bananas that do not fulfill EC standards are not marketed within the EC. These importers must record their controls and are monitored by the responsible authorities on a regular basis.

Containers that are not supposed to be opened before they reach their destination must be checked by the responsible authority upon their arrival.

Every controlling body of the member states establishes its control result by evaluating the fingers and not the clusters. This is the only reliable and comprehensive method of controlling if the standards are fulfilled.

Bananas from biological production: An evaluation of bananas from biological production which were imported to Germany showed that they had varying degrees of quality, even when they came from the same producer. In the beginning, some packages did not fulfill the standards. The BLE allowed the importers to sort out some of the bananas when they were ripe, although this does not comply with the control regulations. This project took a lot of time and did not pay off economically, which is why it is no longer practised today.

The control of bananas from biological production has shown that 10 to 15% of the defects could have been avoided in the exporter’s country:

• The loading of a container in the exporter’s port sometimes takes 10 to 14 days. The containers are not cooled during that time. The bananas in these containers are rotten when they arrive, and are therefore destroyed by the importer.
• It can also pose problems if there are bananas from 30 to 40 different producers in one container. The quality of the fruits may differ from producer to producer. This is why bananas of poorer quality from one producer can mean that the entire carton or the whole package has to be destroyed.
• Some bananas from biological production have damage that does not result from the biological production methods: torn crowns, chains of clusters that are almost torn apart, cuts that are not smooth, long stems remains (when single fingers have been cut out), and traces of rubbing.
• The greatest problems are: rotten crowns, rotten stems and anthracnosis. To reduce the risks, many exporters deliver bananas which are rather small in section but still fulfill the minimum standard of a 27 mm diameter.

By and large, good bananas from biological production are equivalent to class 2 bananas, in some cases even to class 1 bananas.

Summing up, I would like to say that bananas from biological production can easily fulfill the EC standards. Defects that occur during the preparation and packaging should be avoided, because consumers of ecologically produced bananas also have a right to buy products which fulfill the minimum standards.