It’s a new day for Europe’s huddled masses of non-uniform produce. Yesterday, the European Union announced it will ease shape and size restrictions on 26 fruits and vegetables, listed here.
From Milan to Minsk Madrid, curvy cucumbers and asymmetrical asparagus are dancing in the streets.
Whether they’re classified as imperfect, too big, too small, different or just plain ugly–these fruits and vegetables are still edible. With the undoing of the controversial rules, plenty of produce will be saved from unnecessary squandering and prices should decline.
And it’s high time. The EU said they were removing the four-year-old rules because they were too bureaucratic. And specific!: European cucumbers can’t bend more than 0.39 inches for every 3.94 inches of length.
Not surprisingly, retailers are pleased. Here’s Sue Henderson, a senior executive at UK retailer Sainsbury’s:
We have been struggling to fit a square peg in a round hole for too long now. We’re not allowed to use up to 20 per cent of what’s produced in this country and in the current climate of the credit crunch, we cannot continue to waste this much food before it even leaves the farms.
But hold the confetti. Restrictions remain for 10 items, including apples, tomatoes and peppers. Unfortunately, those items comprise 75 percent of European produce. Oh, and the restrictions won’t be removed until July.
Then again, retailers can sell non-uniform versions of these items–apples, citrus fruit, kiwi fruit, lettuces, peaches and nectarines, pears, strawberries, sweet peppers, table grapes and tomatoes–as long as they’re labeled “product intended for processing.”
Yeah, that’s not bureaucratic or anything. I wonder if shoppers buying them have to wear a sticker saying “purchaser of product intended for processing.”
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Note: See comments for discussion of U.S. standards.
13 Comments
Hi, I saw this yesterday and thought of you. I’m still excited, ’cause I think it’s a step in the right direction. Are there any such regulations in place in the US? Or are buyers simply unwilling to buy creatively shaped fruits and veggies? (Or maybe the sellers think they are?)
Thanks!
Megan from Fix
I was wondering the same thing, Megan, and I’ve got a call in to USDA now…
I know a lot of this same on-farm culling happens. If a pear is too small or has too many blemishes, it either won’t get picked or will be diverted to the juice factory. And I know there are strict categories for some fruits. It isn’t as simple as I had hoped, as there are USDA standards and then some states take it further.
Anyway, hopefully I’ll have more later today. It’s probably worth a follow-up post.
OMG!
An imperfect fruit?
I have no words. Fruit is fruit. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
When I hold my produce, i am thankful. Period.
Uh oh, it’s just as complicated as I’d feared: The USDA has grading info on fresh market vegetables, fresh market fruits, vegetables for processing and fruit for processing. Each item has its own standards, depending on its destination, with some dating back to the 1940s.
Some of the defintions are vague, like “fairly firm” or “fairly compact.” Others are quite specific. For example, here’s one for carrot bunches:
And there’s also marketing order regulations for certain products. Some states or regions have specific marketing orders for certain crops (like Florida citrus and Oregon-Washington pears).
Ugh.
And I’m still waiting to speak with someone at USDA about this.
I certainly wouldn’t mind buying less-than-uniform produce. What a shame that we throw away food only because of its shape.
Any comments on the impact this has on costs of shipping, packaging etc? The imperfect shaped items could hold up conveyor belts, or make it harder to get uniform weight into a package for bulk sale.
I was so amazed when I saw this at the news yesterday! I never thought that this happened, nor that 20% of the food, was just thrown away, instead of feeding the poor! what’s next, we throw away people that come in weird sizes and shapes?
I heard the news on the radio recently and could not have been more delighted. Having been campaigning against these pathetic and immoral regulations it was a great relief to see that they will, eventually, be dumped.
Many of us will, of course, still be working towards the scrapping of the entire ludicrous fruit and veg size and shape regulations.
EU bureaucrats, do you know that in the world people are starving to death and yet you demand that food is thrown away because it’s the wrong shape? Does the EU have any regulations for the conscience of its officials I wonder… it would seem not!
Blessings from the UK
I wonder if there is a new business opportunity here – someone buy out all the “unfavorable” produce and sell it to those of us who are perfectly happy with PRODUCE. (GRIN)
(rubs chin)
Shorty, have your people call my people. Let’s do this.
Actually, one of the causes of some of the food bank and pantry closings around the country has been the commodification of formerly “unmarketable” food items, such as dented cans and unshapeley produce. For our part, we glean a substantial amount of produce and save a substantial amount of cans because the Enhanced Tax Deductions for Properly Donating Food have usually trumped the possible profits gained through selling these “undesirable” food items. So really, you’d be at the cutting edge of the market right now if you were putting that surplus to use, and you may also be cutting the legs out from under your local hunger relief organization.
Peace and Love,
Dan
It’s not illegal to sell non conforming veggies in the EU! Let’s not exaggerate… Issue was related to cross border trade. When one country wanted to trade “cucumbers”, everyone had to agree what a cucumber was. Thus the introduction of standards for trading ‘cucumbers’ with in the community. So you couldn’t sell Spanish cucumbers that didn’t conform to say France. You could sell them in Spain. (ie. with the country they were produced. These regulations only relate to the veggies that are listed. If you grow say “Nostradamus” cucumbers then these regulations don’t apply.
You may be right, silly, but the rules still cause(d) to great amounts of waste, as documented by the BBC et al. If what you say is true, I’m guessing that the rules do/did effect a majority of produce because so many items are imported from different countries and continents.
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[…] November 14, 2008 Horrifying ethnographic tidbit! Apparently in the EU it’s illegal to sell produce in non-standard shapes. Regulations are being “relaxed” — but only on 25% of produce. Why, European regulators, why? (Thank Jonathan at the blog “Wasted Food” for leading to horrifying gasps from my station in the library.) Posted by grocerylists Filed in Uncategorized […]