This piece on Sahyadri Grapes was a revelation to me.
It appeared on on ThePlate, an interesting publication I had not come across earlier; the style of writing was chatty and engaging and I learnt a whole lot of things about farmer-producer companies that are setting new benchmarks for the production and export of fruits and vegetables.
I was particularly surprised to learn about the barriers faced by Indian exporters in getting their products cleared, especially in the European markets. While some of these barriers, such as limits to pesticide residue, seem quite sensible from the point of view of health and wellbeing of the consumers, some others seem completely whimsical, bordering on Euromyths. The EU, it seems, sets standards on the curvature of bananas and limits the sweetness of fruits imported into their common market.
What exactly are these standards? Why were they adopted?
Curvature of Bananas: European Commission regulation 2257/94 decrees that bananas in general should be “free from malformation or abnormal curvature”. Those sold as “extra class” must be perfect, “class 1” can have “slight defects of shape” and “class 2” can have full-scale “defects of shape.” This standard applies to bananas of the varieties (cultivars) of Musa (AAA) spp., Cavendish and Gros Michel subgroups.
Far from being a whimsical, curvature of a banana seems to be a good indicator healthy growth - the amount and sunlight the plant was exposed to during its growth phase, and the resulting distribution of hormones.
Sweetness of Fruits: The Brix scale is used to measure the sweetness of fruits such as grapes. Article 50(2)(a) of Regulation (EU) No 1151/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council on quality schemes for agricultural products and foodstuffs.
According to the Plate article, "..the Brix content for grapes to Europe must range from 16 to 20 degrees, whereas the Indian palate prefers sugar content 24 degrees or higher". The relevant EU regulations however seems to set only minimum limits for sweetness, ranging from 12-14 degrees on the Brix scale.
There have been reports of export consignments getting rejected for exceeding limits on pesticide content in the fruits, but have there been cases where a rejection has happened due to excessive curvature or sweetness?
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REFERENCES & LINKS
* Why are bananas bent? - https://uniquetimes.org/the-curious-case-of-curved-bananas-why-are-they-bent/
* https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/bendy-bananas-why-are-they-staying-eu-rules-b1080788.html
* https://www.cbi.eu/market-information/fresh-fruit-vegetables/table-grapes/market-entry
* https://unece.org/sites/default/files/2023-02/FFV10Carrots_2021_e.pdf
* Measuring sweetness - https://www.refractometer.eu/scales-for-sweetness-measuring
* https://www.yara.co.uk/crop-nutrition/grapes/managing-grape-sweetness/
* https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:52020XC0615(01)&rid=1
* Chaptalisation - process of adding extra sugar to grapes! - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaptalization
* https://www.freshpoint.com/news/understanding-brix-is-a-higher-number-always-better/
* APEDA Guidelines (2007) - https://apeda.gov.in/apedawebsite/Grapenet/regu_fresh_grapes08.pdf
* Banana export guidelines - https://www.corpseed.com/knowledge-centre/export-banana-from-india
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