"EuropeanCommission" news and stories

Too curvy or just right? Photo: cyborgsuzy/flickr

After a 20-year ban, the European Commission is allowing the sale of less than perfect fruits and vegetables.

"July 1 marks the return to our shelves of the curved cucumber and the knobbly carrot," Mariann Fischer Boel, Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, says. "More seriously, this is a concrete example of our drive to cut unnecessary red tape ... It makes no sense to throw perfectly good products away, just because they are the 'wrong' size and shape."

For years, the European Commission regulated the size and shape of fruits and vegetables sold on the continent.

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]