Wonky Vegfetables Rejected as unsuitable for consumption. Vegetable farmer processing carrot harvest in Burscough, Lancashire,
Michael Mann, the European Commission's Agriculture spokesman, notes that when the rules on fruit and vegetable standards were brought in 20 years ago the eurocrats were not inventing a new category of regulation, but merely seeking to standardise already existing laws across Europe. And of course, member states have been responsible for deciding how to police and punish the fruit laws. HOW RULES WILL CHANGE Rules for 26 fruit and vegetable scrapped Rules for 10 retained But sub-rule produce can be sold in shops if labelled as "for processing" or similar formulation Scrapped 26 are: Apricots, artichokes, asparagus, aubergines, avocadoes, beans, brussels sprouts, cauliflowers, cherries, courgettes, cucumbers, cultivated mushrooms, garlic, hazelnuts in shell, headed cabbage, leeks, melons, onions, peas, plums, ribbed celery, spinach, walnuts in shell, watermelons, witloof chicory 10 retained are: Apples, citrus fruit, kiwi fruit, lettuces and endives, peaches and nectarines, pears, strawberries, sweet peppers, table grapes, tomatoes "We wouldn't encourage people to come down too heavily on people selling amusing carrots," says Mr Mann. In the UK, enforcement is administered by the Rural Payments Agency. They deal with breaches of the marketing standards mainly by educating and warning the offending traders and suppliers, but there are "four or five" prosecutions a year. Rotten produce for sale may be more likely to result in action than oddities of shape, but it remains the case that both are against the law. Only in June, a trader in Bristol was stopped by the RPA from selling 520 kiwi fruit that were slightly too small. In recent years, even supermarkets have been kicking against the regulations. Waitrose launched an "ugly" range of Class II produce for jam-making and cooking in 2006. More recently Sainsbury's withdrew a promotion of discount Halloween-themed vegetables, saying they had realised managers could get a criminal record for selling non-standard items.
Size: 5616px × 3744px
Location: Burscough, Lancashire, UK
Photo credit: © MediaWorldImages / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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