Liberating Brussels’ Sprouts

pete quentin, 17 November 2008

Last week the European Union voted to scrap its much ridiculed regulations controlling the size and shape of fruit and vegetables sold within the EU.

Too tight regulations, which for the last 20 years have seen huge amounts of food being wasted on account of its being “too bendy” or “too knobbly”, will be changed for 26 fruits and veg – including aubergines, apricots, cherries, garlic, leeks, peas, spinach and watermelon.
However the EU is not removing all of its counterproductive regulations as rules controlling the appearance of apples, kiwi fruit, tomatoes, strawberries and lettuce, will remain. As will the famous “bendy banana regulation”, (EC No. 2257/94) which insists that bananas remain “free from abnormal curvature of the fingers”….
Shops will be exempt from the remaining rules if they label their relevant products as “intended for processing”.
The new rules will come into force in July 2009.
Recent reports that the credit crunch has triggered the resurgence of the “thrifty” veg, the turnip, signalled a change in consumer concerns. It now seems that fear of the impending recession and the danger of worsening food shortages has finally hit home for the EU.
Despite the fact that 16 member states (including including France, Spain and Italy), voted against scrapping the rules earlier this year, last week the Commission reversed the decision.
The Commission has recognised that idealised fruit and veg is a luxury that consumers simply can’t afford. The impending recession will produce “belt-tightening” economic conditions; that is, as prices rise, consumers’ standards will fall. In other words, consumers are becoming far less concerned about the “healthy” appearance of their fruit and veg as the need to fill their hungry bellies takes centre stage.
Having launched a “ban on ugly” campaign earlier this year to challenge the tonnes of wasted food, the EU’s agriculture commissioner, Mariann Fischer Boel, victoriously declared that the move to liberate EU fruit and vegetables “marks the new dawn for the curvy cucumber and the knobbly carrot”.