19 June, 2008 - Proposals to scrap controversial uniformity rules on the way overly curved cucumbers and mis-shapen fruit are classed for sale could be under threat, a leading agricuture MEP has said.
A row is in danger of breaking out after the European Agriculture Commissioner, Mariann Fischer Boel, table a scheme to simplify the rules of marketing fruit and vegetables. This would streamline the existing 36 marketing standards - which stipulate quality criteria on a range of products from apricots to watermelons - to just 10.
Among those to go would be the infamous "cucumber" quality standard which ensures that cucumbers bend more than 10mm for every 10cm of length cannot be labelled Class One vegetables.
Instead, the European Commission is proposing just ten standards which would continue the existing rules on fruits such as apples, pears and kiwis and vegetables such as tomatoes and lettuces whilst ensuring that other products met a basic set of standards.
EC spokesman Michael Mann has been reported as saying: “"People are saying that prices are too high, [so] it makes no sense to be chucking food away. We want to have two classes, allowing supermarkets to sell funny shaped vegetables.
“We currently have a book of 36 regulations that don't need to be so complicated. So we are planning to have a basic rule which makes sure that what you are getting in the shops is not dirty, diseased or rotten.” He confirmed the rule on cucumbers would be abolished f the measure is adopted.
He admitted that many members states had objected to the plans but said the EC was determined to succeed with its proposal.
“We are going to continue the fight to make sure these unnecessary rules go," he said.
Neil Parish, an English MEP and Chair of the parliament's Agriculture Committee has welcomed the move but said he understands that 18 of the 27 members of the European Council have voiced their opposition to the idea.
"Finally, the European Commission comes up with a sensible idea aimed at getting rid of frankly silly rules which are all about the shape and not the quality of the product and lo-and-behold the usual suspects line up to block it.
"The new rules will still ensure that all fruit and veg is clean and healthy whilst allowing people to enjoy the diversity that normal production brings. The regulations as they stand are unnatural, wasteful and serve no practical purpose other than ensuring that fruit and veg looks good.”