in the wholesale and retail trade. Florida celery is normally

greener than California celery, particularly early in the season,

The respondents felt that consumers equate a very strong or

"poison" green color with bitter taste, and thus will not buy

celery that is "too green."

 However, Florida's greener color was seen as desirable by

 three respondents in the Detroit area, who also stated that con-

 sumers in that market seemed to prefer celery with more color.

 Retailers in the other two market areas stated that the color of

 Florida's celery was very good during the 1975-76 season. One

 Philadelphia respondent said that consumers viewed lighter color as

 indicating deterioration in quality and preferred greener celery.


 Leaf Characteristics


 Since celery leaves are felt by many in the produce trade to

 be important for consumer "eye appeal" and are, at the same time,

 a major problem for the grower, retailers were asked to compare

 Florida and California stalks with respect to amount and quality

 of leaves. As with the evaluation of celery color, responses include

 all retailers plus three full-service wholesalers. Respondents'

 attitudes toward the quantity of leaves on Florida celery are classed

 as positive, negative or neutral, and comments are reported (Table 11),


 Leaf quantity


 A majority of those interviewed, 13 of 22, stated that Florida

celery generally had more leaves than did celery from California.

However, nine felt there was no difference in the quantity of leaves