Before mid October Peter Damen saw greenhouse vegetables that were still of very acceptable quality. "Most cultivations are now coming to their end and the quality needs to stay on par to keep a good image of it.
Peppers were, certainly for the larger sizes, of good quality. I thought the red variety was better than the yellow. The smaller sizes were also still very acceptable. The biggest problem was a number of damages, which were not necessary. I found Fusarium in one party.
I saw cucumbers of a number of origins. The quality varied from mediocre for the heterogeneous parties to very good for a very uniform quality of shape and colour.
The same went for aubergines. Uniformity of colour was good, that of shape a little less due to rounder and longer fruits in a box.
Tomatoes were diverse in quality. A party of loose tomatoes was rejected due to a high percentages of bright green fruits. Plum tomatoes had light spots on otherwise well coloured fruits. Supermarket have difficulties with this and judge these fruits based on the lighter spots, a colour below desirable. Flesh tomatoes from Belgium were nicely ripe and had character. Cherry tomatoes were light in colour whereas another variety of honey tomatoes were excellently red.
Sprouts weren't as good as I expected. Some were a little nibbled and there was even slight damage due to cabbage fly. Finally, I saw leek with a sufficient quality, but with some damage due to trips in the form of light spots."
Peter Damen
Quality Specialist KCB