"In week 33, quality of most products was pretty decent. Perhaps due to some stagnation in trade, I saw produce that wasn't exactly fresh any more." That's what Peter Damen, quality specialist of the KCB, writes.
"Tomatoes were of good quality, but showed damage sometimes, causing this good quality to become a bit muddled. For vine tomatoes, that often was harvest damage, with the round ones usually stem damage. Beef tomatoes showed some bleakness. The quality boost here hasn't been as big as for the round tomatoes in the past 10 to 15 years. The firmness was good though."
"With bell peppers, the yellow variety was the least of all colours now. Mainly because of the shape, a few tears and a so-called sheep's head, appearance was reasonable but still sufficient. With the red ones, I saw a watery spot on the shoulder here and there. With cucumbers, there were large quantities of stem fruits and also vine fruits, giving off a heterogeneous image."
"A quantity of eggplants was firm but not overripe yet. The colour was still sufficiently dark. Iceberg lettuce was a few days old already. The cutting surfaces were brown, and I saw a reddened vein here and there. One batch had fusarium wilt. Leeks had remarkably long shafts. The green was affected by thrips, visible in the form of yellow dots and spots on the green part."
"Finally, I saw some quantities of string beans and green beans. These were beautifully green, without any form of rust. It was also remarkable that hardly any damage was noticeable. Although the quality, as said, was pretty decent, now it's a matter of keeping it up. Especially in a period of difficult sales, delivering a top quality product is one of the priorities to get things going again."
Peter Damen
Quality specialist KCB
"A quantity of eggplants was firm but not overripe yet. The colour was still sufficiently dark. Iceberg lettuce was a few days old already. The cutting surfaces were brown, and I saw a reddened vein here and there. One batch had fusarium wilt. Leeks had remarkably long shafts. The green was affected by thrips, visible in the form of yellow dots and spots on the green part."
"Finally, I saw some quantities of string beans and green beans. These were beautifully green, without any form of rust. It was also remarkable that hardly any damage was noticeable. Although the quality, as said, was pretty decent, now it's a matter of keeping it up. Especially in a period of difficult sales, delivering a top quality product is one of the priorities to get things going again."
Peter Damen
Quality specialist KCB