European commission okays oddly shaped produce

by Shayna Glick, Posted Aug 14th 2008 @ 12:01PM

Close view of organic turnips on sale at a farmers market.

Until today, I was completely unaware that there were rules governing how produce had to look at the supermarket. I just thought that it was the retailers who were only accepting the "pretty" stuff.

However, in Europe there are all kinds of rules that dictate what produce has to look like. It covers the diameter of bananas all the way to what percentage of asparagus has to be green. The produce that doesn't fit those regulations gets tossed out. Recently, the European Commission decided that throwing away perfectly good produce just because it doesn't look perfect is just plain wasteful. Additionally the practice may also be contributing to the global food crisis.

As a result, the old rules are being abandoned on about 26 fruits and vegetables. Due to some opposition, though, not every variety of produce is having the rules changed. The compromise is that strawberries, pears, tomatoes, apples, kiwi, and lettuce must still meet the old guidelines.

What do you think about rules regarding produce appearance?

[via TreeHugger]

Filed Under: Business, On the Blogs, Ingredients
Tags: European Commission, EuropeanCommission, fruit, legislation, produce, Tree Hugger, TreeHugger, vegetables

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

8-14-2008 @1:41PM mu said... There are similar rules for exporting tomatoes from Florida. The rules are strictly appearance based so you can export nutrition-free tomatoes that taste like wet cardboard as long as they're pretty and photogenic.
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8-14-2008 @1:32PM ronzo said... I think the people buying food should be able to decide for themselves what they think fruits and veggies should look like... like they did back before big needless wasteful government rules were instituted in order to show people that the governement knows what's best for them better than they do themselves...
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8-14-2008 @8:46PM anna said... These regulations have been the source of endless jokes for us, Europeans, who do not get paid for crazy bureaucratic decisions.
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8-15-2008 @2:10AM zerocalories said... I'd say let the people decide. If they want to buy odd-shaped produce, let them do so!
Reducing waste is great! har har
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8-17-2008 @2:21AM analovin said... This is not a uniquely European issue, grocery stores in the United States have the same stupid and incredibly wasteful rules...So sad when plenty of people don't have enough money to afford fresh fruits and veggies (and don't care if their carrots could win beauty contests) See the book "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver for more info
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8-17-2008 @11:17AM Thomas P said... There are groups out there that get "less than perfect" items donated to them. I know farmers that have let us glean their field for non-marketable fruit and veggies. Also Additionally a NFP group know as Society of St Andrew (non-denominational) gleans fields and distributed quite literally semi truckloads of veggies to soup kitchens and distribution points all over America. A few summers ago a group of teens, sdult leaders and myself gleaned 108,000 pounds of potatoes in the bootheel region of Missouri. Mornings were spent in the field, afternoons were spent studying global effects of hunger and poverty created by factory farming.
We also have Operation Food Search in the St Louis area that works with major grocery chains to have soup kitchens assigned to certain stores in their are to pick up salvageable produce, bakery and dairy foods to take back to our kitchens as well as weekly pick-ups from the headquarters...all sponsored by the local/major food store owners.
Yes, my dears, there is hope...

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