Fruit and veg fashion parade to end

posted by Cptn

You may be familiar with ugli fruit, but get yourself prepared for ugly vegetables, too. Yup, those EU rules which meant fruit and veg conformed to a particular perception of beauty are to be scrapped, which means our five-a-days aren’t going to be judged by looks alone.

According to the press release from South West MEP Graham Watson’s office, ‘EU laws to ensure fruit and vegetables were sold in standard shapes and sizes were put in place following requests from food buyers to assist them in contracts for large-scale purchases’.

Those laws are about to be repealed, not through common sense though, but because groups, such as Sainsburys have been calling for them to be. These groups also argued ‘that scrapping rules that prevent misshapen produce reaching the shelves could reduce prices by up to 40 per cent’.

Graham Watson told the PRSD: “This is great news indeed; the Commission have at long last seen sense on this issue. Consumers obviously demand high-quality produce that is clean and healthy. But quite why some countries, like France and Germany feel consumers are concerned on how wonky or knobbly fruit and veg appears is absurd.

“At a time of global food shortages and rising prices its good to see sensible measures being taken to remove ridiculous regulations. Ultimately, Europe needs to concentrate on the real issues that affect the continent’s citizens.”

This is all very well, but why am I thinking of Esther Rantzen?

• Are we too concerned with looks and packaging?

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