Florida Grapefruit, Florida Oranges and Tangelos, and, Florida Tangerines; Grade Standards

This final rule revises the United States Standards for Grades of Florida Grapefruit, United States Standards for Grades of Florida Oranges and Tangelos, and, United States Standards for Grades of Florida Tangerines. The Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), in cooperation with industry, and other interested parties develops and improves standards of quality, condition, quantity, grade and packaging in order to facilitate commerce by providing buyers, sellers, and quality assurance personnel uniform language and criteria for describing various levels of quality and condition as valued in the marketplace. The revisions will: Redefine terms to reflect more clearly current cultural and marketing practices; add and revise the grades so as to make them uniform and consistent with each other and other recently revised U.S. grade standards; express defect tolerances in terms of percentages instead of specific numbers of defective fruit; revise the size sections to provide greater flexibility in marketing and packaging new varieties of fruit; and, delete references to a visual aid which is no longer available.