Knowledge
Questions
Practical answers to the most common questions about agricultural products, processing, logistics, standards and international markets.
- Real buyer questions
- Source-referenced answers
- Reviewed regularly
Question Types
What is, how does, how to, which, why and where questions.
Browse by Topic
- agriculture26
- Allergen Management3
- beekeeping23
- Berries15
- Certifications & Standards41
- Cold Chain53
- commercial57
- customs44
- Drying & Dehydration40
- eu-regulation70
- Export Procedures31
- Food Safety86
- Freezing & Frozen Products44
- fruit-processing42
- grain-milling23
- herbs-spices-processing27
- Honey Quality32
- juice-concentrate25
- Knowledge
- lab-testing55
- labelling44
- Logistics71
- Market Trends3
- Markets6
All Questions
-
Who is legally responsible for a food label?
-
Who is the importer of record, and does the Incoterms rule decide it?
-
Who owns the temperature risk under FCA?
-
Who pays demurrage when a reefer waits?
-
Why are kidney beans colour sorted?
-
Why do frozen vegetables arrive as a solid block?
-
Why do hulled seeds go rancid faster than whole ones?
-
Why do IQF berries arrive clumped together?
-
Why do nitrate limits apply to some vegetables?
-
Why is writing ‘absent’ in a specification a mistake?
What this section is for
These are short answers to the single questions that come up in email threads. Around two hundred words each, no preamble, no restating of the question in three different ways before answering it. If someone on your team asks what a diastase number is or what FCL means on a freight quotation, send them the question rather than a guide.
One question, one answer, one page
Each entry answers exactly one thing. That makes them linkable: you can paste the URL into a thread and the recipient gets the answer without scrolling past four sections they did not ask about. Where a question genuinely has two answers depending on context, the entry says which context produces which answer instead of picking one.
Where a short answer is not enough
Some questions cannot be answered honestly in two hundred words. Those entries give the short answer, state its limits, and link to the guide that does the work. Anything involving a legal obligation, a certification scope or a customs classification falls into this category more often than not.
How to read a dated answer
Every answer carries a review date. A short answer that quotes a limit, a tariff position or a certification scheme is only as good as the day it was checked, because those move by Commission decision and by scheme revision. If the date is more than six months old and the number matters to a contract, open the linked source and read the current text before you use it. That is slower than trusting the page, and it is the only way to be sure.
What is deliberately not answered here
Nothing on this site quotes a price, names a supplier or confirms that a specific consignment meets a specific buyer’s specification. Those are commercial questions and they depend on the lot in front of you. What the answers below do is say which parameter decides the question, where the limit is written down and what evidence to ask for. The decision stays with you and with your own testing.
The questions come from real threads
The list is driven by what buyers, quality managers and logistics coordinators actually ask, not by keyword research. That is why some entries look basic and some look unreasonably specific. Both get asked.
Start here
Three entry points that answer most first visits to this section.
What is IQF freezing?
The process, why it matters commercially and how it differs from block freezing.
What does MOQ mean?
Minimum order quantity in practice, and why it is set where it is.
What is the cold chain?
The unbroken temperature-controlled sequence and the points where it fails.
Common questions about this section
How is this different from the glossary?
The glossary defines a term. A question answers a question. ‘Water activity’ is a glossary entry; ‘why does water activity matter more than moisture’ is a question.
Can I submit a question?
Yes, through the contact page. Questions that come up more than once get written up and published.
Are the answers reviewed?
Yes, on the same rolling schedule as everything else. Each entry carries a last-reviewed date.
Why do some answers refuse to be definitive?
Because some questions – customs classification above all – have answers that depend on the specific consignment and are formally the declarant’s responsibility. A confident wrong answer would be worse than a hedged correct one.