Misshapen produce gets its day

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(Perfect or not so?)

Produce displays in Europe seem always to look so picture-perfect. Time to make way for the ‘curvy cucumber and the knobbly carrot.’

European Union member states this week voted to dump certain marketing standards for 26 fruits and vegetables.

‘This marks a new dawn for the curvy cucumber and the knobbly carrot,’ Mariann Fischer Boel, commissioner for agriculture and rural development, said in a statement posted on the EU’s website. ‘It’s a concrete example of our drive to cut unnecessary red tape. We simply don’t need to regulate this sort of thing at the EU level. It is far better to leave it to market operators. And in these days of high food prices and general economic difficulties, consumers should be able to choose from the widest range of products possible. It makes no sense to throw perfectly good products away just because they are the ‘wrong’ shape.’

The standards will stay in place for 10 items, including apples, strawberries and tomatoes. But even for those, EU members can allow shops to sell products that don’t respect the standards, as long as their labels note that.

The standards were repealed for 26 products, including apricots, avocados, beans, carrots, cauliflower, cucumbers, leeks, melons, onions, peas, plums and spinach.

The changes are to be implemented July 1.

— Mary MacVean