It is well known that the EU regulates the size and shape of fruit and vegetables. On 12 November the EU Management Committee for Fruit and Vegetables voted on the Commission proposals to repeal specific marketing standards for 26 types of fruit and vegetables such as apricots, asparagus, avocadoes, beans, carrots, cauliflowers, cherries, cucumbers, garlic, headed cabbage, leeks, melons, onions, peas, plums.
However, the European Commission’s plan to scrap harmonisation rules that have prevented the so called misshapen fruit and vegetables being sold are too late as several small producers were already eliminated because they were not able to compete with the detailed and strict marketing standards.
For 10 types of fruit and vegetables such as apples, strawberries and tomatoes, marketing standards will be kept nevertheless shops would be allowed to sell products that don't respect the standards but they must be labelled to distinguish them from 'extra', 'class I' and 'class II' fruit. They must be labelled as “products intended for processing.” Therefore the Commission will introduce new regulations detailing how such products can be market.
Mariann Fischer Boel has said "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." However, the EU has been required this for the last 20 years.
According to Sainsbury this move might reduce prices by up to 40 percent as well as reducing produce wasted. Sue Henderson from Sainsbury has said 'We're not allowed to use up to 20 per cent of what's produced in this country and in the current crunch climate, we cannot continue to waste this much food before it even leaves the farms.”
It should be mentioned that several Member States such as France, Italy, Spain still believe that in scrapping the EU rules would prejudice the overall quality of EU fruit and vegetables.
The Commission still has to formally adopt the changes which will be implemented from 1 July 2009 therefore funny shape products cannot be legally sold before the summer.
