Vegetable
Loose Leaf
A tier
Loose leaf lettuce does not form a tight head—ruffled or flat open leaves cut as needed, fast to harvest, wide colour range from green to red. Texture is softer than romaine, more structured than baby spinach. Ideal for cut-and-come-again gardens and salad mixes. Dress just before serving.
Track this ingredient
Unit
Characteristics
Preparations
Continuous CutFresh BowlSalad Mix
Traits
Cut And Come AgainMix FriendlyNon-HeadingOpen LeafTender-CrispVariable ColourVersatile
Grading systems
Grades are placed along a shared scale so systems can be compared side by side.
US No. 2
US No. 1
History
Open-leaf garden lettuces predated industrial heading types in home plots.
US
Seed catalogues listed loose leaf as a distinct market class.
Salad mix industry scaled loose leaf production.
Loose leaf remained the home-garden cut-and-come-again default.