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Animal and Plant Health Agency gov.uk

Fresh fruit and vegetable marketing standards

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Quality and labelling rules for growing, packing, distributing, importing and selling fresh fruit and vegetables.

Fresh fruit and vegetables at all stages of production and marketing must meet quality and labelling requirements. These are called marketing standards.

The marketing standards also apply to salad crops, nuts and cultivated mushrooms.

Individuals and businesses at all stages of production and marketing must follow rules to meet marketing standards, including:

The 2 sets of marketing standards are the:

  • Specific Marketing Standard (SMS) for 10 types of fresh produce
  • General Marketing Standard (GMS) for most other fresh fruit, vegetables, nuts and herbs

    • If you’re exporting goods that are covered by Specific Marketing Standards (SMS) from Great Britain you will need a certificate of conformity. Importing countries may occasionally ask for a certificate of conformity for GMS goods as well.

    The SMS includes quality and labelling rules that your products must comply with at each stage of production and marketing.

  • peaches and nectarines (PDF, 221 KB, 6 pages)

    • You must not sell SMS products that do not meet these requirements.

    You must make sure your SMS products are graded based on their quality:

  • extra class – superior quality produce that’s regular in shape and appearance with only very slight defects
  • class I – good quality produce that has minor defects to the skin or shape
  • class II – reasonably good quality produce that may have one or more defects such as some bruising, damage or change in colour

    • You can grade SMS products (apart from lettuce) as ‘extra class’ if they meet the relevant requirements.

    If you sell SMS products, you must check that the produce meets the class requirements.

    If produce deteriorates, you should not sell it. If it meets the requirements for a lower quality class, change the labelling to display that class.

    The label on all packages of SMS produce (including pre-packed produce) must include:

    This is an extract. The publication continues at the source.

    Read the original at the source: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/comply-with-marketing-standards-for-fresh-fruit-and-vegetables

    Officially imported this from Animal and Plant Health Agency’s own source and shows an extract. If you work there, claiming the profile and verifying the domain lets you choose to show the full text here.

    Provenance

    Organization
    Animal and Plant Health Agency — imported from official source
    Official source
    https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/animal-and-plant-health-agency.atom ATOM
    Imported
    September 20, 2026 19:53
    Versions
    1 recorded
    Identity
    https://www.gov.uk/guidance/comply-with-marketing-standards-for-fresh-fruit-and-vegetab...

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