Produce is a generalized term for many

farm A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used ...

-produced

crop A crop is a plant that can be grown and harvested extensively for profit or subsistence. When the plants of the same kind are cultivated at one place on a large scale, it is called a crop. Most crops are cultivated in agriculture or hydropon ...

s, including

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particu ...

s and

vegetable Vegetables are parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. The original meaning is still commonly used and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including the flowers, fruits, stems, ...

s (

grains A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and legumes ...

oats The oat (''Avena sativa''), sometimes called the common oat, is a species of cereal grain grown for its seed, which is known by the same name (usually in the plural, unlike other cereals and pseudocereals). While oats are suitable for human co ...

, etc. are also sometimes considered ''produce''). More specifically, the term ''produce'' often implies that the products are

fresh Fresh or FRESH may refer to: People *DJ Fresh (born 1977), UK-based drum and bass artist *DJ Fresh (producer), US-based R&B producer born Marqus Brown Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Fresh'' (1994 film), a crime film * ''Fresh'' (200 ...

and generally in the same state as where and when they were harvested. In supermarkets, the term is also used to refer to the section of the store where fruit and vegetables are kept. ''Produce'' is the main product sold by greengrocers (UK, Australia) and

farmers' market A farmers' market (or farmers market according to the AP stylebook, also farmer's market in the Cambridge Dictionary) is a physical retail marketplace intended to sell foods directly by farmers to consumers. Farmers' markets may be indoors or o ...

s. The term is widely and commonly used in the U.S. and Canada, but is not typically used outside the agricultural sector in other

English-speaking countries The following is a list of English-speaking population by country, including information on both native speakers and second-language speakers. List * The European Union is a supranational union composed of 27 member states. The total En ...

. In parts of the world, including the U.S., produce is marked with small stickers bearing

price look-up codes Price look-up codes, commonly called PLU codes, PLU numbers, PLUs, produce codes, or produce labels, are a system of numbers that uniquely identify bulk produce sold in grocery stores and supermarkets. The codes have been in use since 1990, and ...

. These four- or five- digit codes are a

standardized Standardization or standardisation is the process of implementing and developing technical standards based on the consensus of different parties that include firms, users, interest groups, standards organizations and governments. Standardization ...

system intended to aid

checkout Checkout may refer to: * a point of sale terminal * Google Checkout, Google's online payment services * Check-Out (The Price Is Right), a segment game from ''The Price Is Right'' * in information management, it means blocking a file for editing; ...

and

inventory control Inventory control or stock control can be broadly defined as "the activity of checking a shop's stock". It is the process of ensuring that the right amount of supply is available within a business. However, a more focused definition takes into acco ...

at places where produce is sold.

Storage

Vegetables are optimally stored between 0° and 4.4° Celsius (32° and 40 °F) to reduce

respiration Respiration may refer to: Biology * Cellular respiration, the process in which nutrients are converted into useful energy in a cell ** Anaerobic respiration, cellular respiration without oxygen ** Maintenance respiration, the amount of cellul ...

. Generally, vegetables should be stored at a high humidity (80 and 95 percent relative humidity), but cucurbits (squash family) and onions prefer dry and can mold when moisture is high.

Bacterial contamination

Raw sprouts are among the produce most at risk of bacterial infection. Rinsing is an effective way to reduce the bacteria count on produce, reducing it to about 10 percent of its previous level. Wastewater used on vegetables can be a source of contamination, due to contamination with fecal matter, salmonella or other bacteria. After Denmark eliminated salmonella in its chickens, attention has turned to vegetables as a source of illness due to feces contamination from other animal sources, such as pigs.

References

External links

{{Authority control Crops Food retailing Edible fruits Vegetables

Storage

Bacterial contamination

See also

Notable people

References

Further reading

External links