EU Revises Widely Ridiculed Laws Against Ugly Produce

Grocers in Europe will soon be free of laws preventing the sale of fruits and vegetables that are too curvy, too small, or too odd-looking.

The EU voted Wednesday to get rid of marketing standards requiring produce to meet certain aesthetic guidelines -- for example, the arc height of a Class I cucumber could be no more than 10 mm per 10 cm of the cucumber's length. These regulations, which date back 20 years and fill more than 100 pages, have led to much derision of the EU and its bureaucracy, particularly within the UK.

I've been trying, without much success, to find an explanation of the rationale for these rules. Products are broken up into quality classes -- extra, Class I and Class II -- and priced accordingly. That much makes sense, especially since in a lot of stores, customers aren't allowed to touch and squeeze products before buying them. But that doesn't explain why the less perfect fruits and veggies can't be sold at all, even at a lower price.

Rising food prices were a leading factor in scrapping the regulations; throughout Europe, an estimated 20 percent of produce was being thrown away because it wasn't perfect enough.

But the modifications don't take effect until July 1, 2009 -- and the EU is eliminating rules on only 26 of the 36 regulated products. The ten products still regulated -- apples, citrus fruit, kiwi fruit, lettuces, peaches and nectarines, pears, strawberries, sweet peppers, table grapes and tomatoes -- account for 75 percent of the produce market.

Still, at least stores will no longer have to throw away these products; as long as they're properly labelled as ugly (or "product intended for processing" or something similar) they can still be sold.

This Halloween, leading UK supermarket Sainsbury's had to call off a healthy-eating campaign of "'zombie brains' cauliflowers, 'witches fingers' carrots and 'ogres toenails' cucumbers using under-sized and misshapen vegetables."

The chain was ready to defy the rules until it realized individual managers could be held responsible, not only the company. So it cancelled the zombie cauliflowers but launched a "Save Our British Fruit and Veg" campaign.

And in June, food inspectors in Bristol stopped the sale of 520 kiwis that were 1 mm smaller than required by kiwi regulations; the trader was not even allowed to give the fruit away, though he was given the option of making them into juice.