In the past, all EC Marketing Standards stated that packages' content had to be "uniform".

An exception was only granted for "miniature" types of produce.

As a matter of fact, some EC Member States did ignore this principle, tolerating packages with combinations of, for example, an apple, a banana and an orange.

Several German authorities internally decided to tolerate sales of such mixes coming from abroad, because these packages obviously met consumers' demands and, in fact, caused just a formal, but not a material breach of law.

As of February 1, 2003, the European Commission has set into force a new regulation (Commission Regulation [EC] No 48/2003 of 10 January 2003) laying down that consumer packages of a net weight of 3 kg or less may contain mixes of different fruit and/or vegetable species as far as the mix is not such as to mislead the consumer.

All products contained in such packages (subject to EC standards or not) have to meet the same quality criteria as laid down in the annex of the new regulation.

Labelling shall at least show

• name and address (or accepted code) of the packer and/or dispatcher
• name of each product/type contained in the package
• name of variety or commercial type of each product
• country of origin of each product
• class, equally applicable for each product contained

For products covered by EC Marketing Standards, these marking elements replace the particulars laid down in those standards; this means for instance that marking of products' size is not mandatory - see sample.

Please keep in mind that, due to general German labelling regulations, the use of packer/dispatcher's accepted code is not sufficient for consumer packages. Labelling has to show name and address in clear writing in order to grant traceability.