[2025] EWHC 1706 (Comm)

It is important to understand the key characteristics of asparagus for the purposes of this claim. Mr Sarradj explained these in his Report and summarised them at Section 2.5:

“2.5

Summary of technical background

2.5.1.

To summarise, asparagus is one of the most metabolically active vegetables of commercial importance. This metabolic activity is known as respiration and involves the breakdown of energy stores resulting in detrimental physiological changes and the production of heat and carbon dioxide. In scientific literature, the rate of respiration is measured as the rate of carbon dioxide production.

2.5.2.

Temperature is key to controlling the rate of respiration. The higher the temperature, the greater the rate of respiration.

2.5.3.

Notwithstanding, the rate of respiration peaks after harvest as this is when the asparagus has the most energy stores available. As time elapses, the rate of respiration falls with the depletion of energy stores.

2.5.4.

It is therefore imperative that post-harvest cooling occurs as soon as possible after harvest. The sooner it occurs, the greater the shelf life (assuming carriage temperature and humidity is adequate). Delays to hydrocooling can reduce the shelf life significantly.

2.5.5.

The optimum carriage conditions are 0-2^OC and 95-99% humidity. In practice, this temperature is not achievable hence carriage at 2-8^OC occurs. This temperature range is still below 9^OC-10^OC, when the respiration rate of asparagus has been shown to increase rapidly.

2.5.6.

Deterioration caused by respiration is irreversible.”

In terms of the storage and transit requirement summarised above, Mr Sarradj explained in more detail in Section 2.4 –

“2.4.1.

There are various recommendations for storage temperature and humidity for asparagus spears. The most common recommendations from academic sources are relatively harmonised and these suggest that storage at 0-2^OC and 95-99% humidity prolongs the self-life to about 14–21 days.

2.4.2.

The basis of this at a technical level is that the rate of metabolic activity is linked closely to temperature. At lower temperatures, the rate of respiration is lower hence the rate of deterioration is slowed. Furthermore, asparagus contains a high amount of moisture and keeping it in a humid environment will prevent water loss to the atmosphere, which would otherwise lead to detrimental quality changes in weight, texture and colour.

2.4.3.

In practice, it is not possible to transport asparagus by air in the 0-2^OC range because it is seldom the case that one type of vegetable is transported in a dedicated airline cargo hold. The same goes for other stages of the supply chain, such as packhouses. This can be for various reasons, with the most common that I have encountered being commercial impracticality. Instead, fruits and vegetables tend to be transported within a given range, usually 2-8^OC, since the optimum temperature for most fruit and vegetables are in this range. This range is below the 9-10^OC that has been shown to rapidly increase the respiration rate of asparagus.

…

2.4.5.

If fresh green asparagus is hydrocooled quickly after harvest, and then allowed to increase to high temperatures, it would be expected that the rate of respiration at these temperatures would be high since the energy stores within the asparagus would not have been depleted in the time between harvest and hydrocooling..”

Mr François’ own report did not set out any similar discussion of the characteristics of asparagus, but Mr Sarradj’s exposition was relied upon by KLM and referred to in Mr Lawson’s skeleton argument at para. 14 and in his examination of Mr Sarradj.