Bent cucumbers could be back in stores
Bizarre EU bans on imperfectly shaped fruit and veg could be scrapped because of the rising price of food.
European Commission Regulation No. 1277/88 states that if a cucumber bends more than 10 millimeters per 10 centimeters it can not be categorized as "class one."
The rule means many cucumbers can only be sold as second-rate - and other weird rules apply to 35 other items such as bananas onions, garlic, caulifower and spinach.
But now agriculture bosses say that because of high fuel prices the rules themselves should be bent.
Mariann Fischer Boel, the EU's Danish agricultural minister, says sellers and consumers, should decide on the standards they want for the food they buy, not the EU.
"In this era of high prices and growing demand, it makes no sense to throw (misshapen fruit and vegetables) away or destroy them. It shouldn't be the EU's job to regulate these things," she said.
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