Cu-cumbersome laws on fruit and veg to be scrapped
Posted, June 30, 2009 @ 13:00
European Commissioner earns her celery
A decades old political hot potato for the European Commission will finally be repeeled tomorrow when the EU lifts its ban on wonky fruit and veg, Neil Parish MEP, Conservative chairman of the European Parliament's agriculture committee, said today.
Marketing standards for 26 types of fruit and vegetable, which governed the size and shape of many products and prevented healthy food being marketed, will be scrapped entirely. For a further ten types of fruit and vegetable standards will remain in place but they can however be sold so long as they are clearly labelled as mis-shapen.
Mr Parish said the rules themselves were utterly immoral and congratulated the Commissioner on her plum decision to scrap them.
He said:
"Wasting healthy food simply because of its shape or size is immoral at a time of recession and global food shortages.
"These rules should never have been put in place at all. I congratulate the Commissioner for scrapping them.
"Considering there will be more produce available for sale on our shelves, I trust the supermarkets will be able to bring down their prices. This decision should make fruit and vegetables cheaper.
"Repealing these laws is a great start to the Swedish Presidency of the EU and we look forward to many more interfering laws being scrapped over the coming months."