- In all classes, subject to the special provisions for each class and the tolerances allowed, the mushrooms must be:
- intact; in case of cut mushrooms, the cut must be clean.
- Intact means not having any mutilation or injury spoiling the integrity of the produce.
- sound; produce affected by rotting, severe browning in the stalk or deterioration such as to make it unfit for consumption is excluded.
- Mushrooms must be free from disease or serious deterioration, which appreciably affects their appearance or edibility or market value. In particular, this excludes mushrooms affected by rotting, even if the signs are very slight but liable to make the mushrooms unfit for consumption upon arrival at their destination.
- Mushrooms showing the following defects are therefore excluded:
- Rotting:
- Serious bruising: damaging the mushroom due to rough handling and/or too
tight packaging. - Diseases: different species of bacteria can cause internal necrosis. Pseudomonas tolaasii causes bacterial blotch. The bacterial blotches are yellow to brown lesions that are slightly sunken and they have a shiny sticky appearance. The bacteria can multiply if the fruiting bodies are too moist. It is a progressive disease that develops further after harvest. Verticillium fungicola cause dry bubble disease. Depending on the time of infection Verticillium causes on the cap small brown spotting or larger brown spots with a greyish hue in the centre.
- Chilling injury
- clean, practically free of any visible foreign matter, other than casing material.
- Mushrooms must be practically free of visible soil, dust, chemical residue or other foreign matter. With respect to the provisions of the classes traces of adhered casing material are allowed since this is part of the production process.
- fresh in appearance, account should be taken of the typical gill colour of the strain and/or commercial type.
- Mushrooms must not show any sign of shrivelling or loss of firmness.
- practically free from pests.
- Mushrooms must be practically free of insects or other pests. The presence of pests can detract from the commercial presentation and acceptance of the mushrooms. The insects are carriers for mushroom pathogens both from fungal and bacterial origin.
- practically free from damage caused by pests.
- Pest damage can detract from the general appearance, keeping quality and edibility of mushrooms. Mites and the larvae of flies or midges can feed on the mycelium and can cause small cavities in the fruiting body.
- free of abnormal external moisture
- This provision applies to excessive moisture, for example, free water lying inside the package but does not include condensation on produce following release from cool storage or refrigerated vehicle.
- free of any foreign smell and/or taste.
- This refers particularly to mushrooms which have been stored on badly kept premises or have travelled in a badly maintained vehicle, especially mushrooms which have acquired a strong smell from other produce stored on the same premises or travelling in the same vehicle. Therefore, care should be taken to use only non-smelling materials as protection in packaging.
- The development and condition of the mushrooms must be such as to enable them:
- to withstand transport and handling,
- to arrive in satisfactory condition at the place of destination.
- Mushrooms are highly perishable. Cooling can reduce deterioration of the mushroom. Therefore the mushroom should be cooled at low temperature as soon as possible after harvest and during packaging, storage and transport.
