The knowledge that beauty is in the eye of the beholder is pretty much a universally accepted fact, but perhaps nowhere more so than with the humble vegetable. Ugly fruit and vegetables, twisted and crippled into unusual and awkward shapes will no longer be shunned as inedible in the European Union.
These ugly ducklings of the vegetable and fruit world are now back on European supermarket shelves after a nearly twenty-year ostracism of the unsightly and the ‘less than visually perfect’. On July 1st, the European Commission scrapped antiquated legislation regulating the appearance of European fruits and vegetables.
"July 1 marks the return to our shelves of the curved cucumber and the knobbly carrot," said Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel. “It makes no sense to throw perfectly good products away, just because they are the 'wrong' size and shape.”
The EU legislation was considered to be overly bureaucratic and highly wasteful of edible food and vegetables.
Previously, vegetables and fruits that were not deemed the “appropriate shape or dimensions” were excluded from sale under EU regulations. More than 26 vegetables and fruit will no longer be regulated and these include apricots, artichokes, asparagus, aubergines, avocados, beans, sprouts, carrots, cauliflowers, cherries, courgettes, cucumbers, mushrooms, garlic, hazelnuts in their shells, cabbage, leeks, melons, onions, peas, plums, celery, spinach, and watermelons.
The EU, however, will continue to regulate apples, citrus fruit, kiwi, lettuce, peaches and nectarines, pears, strawberries, sweet peppers, grapes and tomatoes. Strangely shaped renditions of these fruits and vegetables may still be sold if they carry the appropriate label informing consumers of their “shortcomings”.
Show/Hide comment form
