UNSPSC 50403511: Long purple eggplants

The variety of eggplants known as long purple eggplants

UNSPSC 50403511 Long purple eggplants is a Commodity code that sits at the bottom of the fresh-produce taxonomy, but the recent state and local solicitations tagged under it overwhelmingly cover institutional fresh-produce procurement for K–12 school nutrition programs, early-childhood food services, and correctional facility food supply. School districts dominate the issuing-body mix—Madison Metropolitan School District, Bartow County Schools, Dougherty County Board of Education, Bryan County Schools, Northside Independent School District, Hillsborough County Public Schools, McAllen ISD, Austin ISD, and Savannah-Chatham County Public School System all posted produce bids in the past four months—alongside the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (which posted multiple commodity-specific bids for carrots, sweet potatoes, and white potatoes for inmate meals) and Head Start of Greater Dallas. Smaller numbers of solicitations come from the City of San Antonio senior services, city and county school boards in Georgia, and special-purpose cooperatives like the GEC Buying Cooperative serving 30 school districts. The actual work being bought is apples, bananas, carrots, broccoli, lettuce, onions, potatoes, strawberries, tomatoes, and dozens of other fresh produce items in bulk case quantities, delivered weekly to school kitchens and cafeterias, often with strict specifications on ripeness, size, packaging, farm-of-origin traceability, and organic or local-sourcing preferences where funded.

Geographic activity clusters heavily in Texas and Georgia, where school districts, TDCJ, and coordinated purchasing cooperatives posted over half the recent opportunities; additional recent solicitations appeared in Florida, Connecticut, Missouri, and scattered across other states. Representative recent opportunities include Madison Metropolitan School District's RFB 4163 for fresh fruit and vegetable snacks (approximately 5,900 servings weekly, response due July 29, 2026, with a 5% preference for Wisconsin-certified diverse-owned vendors), Head Start of Greater Dallas's IFB 26-GP for approximately 32,409 cases of produce and frozen foods (bids due June 24, 2026, total procurement value $969,460.94), the TDCJ's multiple IFBs for white potatoes, sweet potatoes, and carrots for canning (bulk quantities, firm pricing, delivery within 14 calendar days unless otherwise approved), the Douglas County School System's RFP SN 26-004 through the GEC Buying Cooperative covering 30 school districts with estimated annual spending of $4.4 million in Area One and $1.1 million in Area Two (proposals due March 4, 2026), and Austin ISD's RFP 26RFP034 for fresh produce and beverages across all district food-service locations with emphasis on Good Food Purchasing Program compliance and Texas-grown product preference (due March 11, 2026). Evaluation criteria typically weight price at 30–50%, product quality and availability at 15–30%, and geographic or local-sourcing preference at 5–15%; most school districts require HACCP certification, Buy American compliance, general liability insurance ($500,000 to $2,000,000), and weekly or twice-weekly delivery on fixed schedules between 6:00 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. Contract terms run July 1 through June 30 annually with one to four optional renewal periods, and pricing remains firm for 60–90 days or longer with escalation allowed only on documented market-index basis (USDA, CPI, terminal wholesale market reports). No specific federal set-asides dominate the code, though many districts encourage small-business, minority-owned, and women-owned vendor participation and several offer preferences for local or regional sourcing.