Tuesday, 30th June 2009

Curvy cucumbers and knobbly sprouts will be back on supermarket shelves following an EU U-turn on wonky vegetables.

On Wednesday, Brussels will lift a ban on the sale of misshapen fruit and veg, which could see prices fall 40%.

For 30 years, farmers have been binning up to a fifth of produce which breached size and shape rules. But now ugly items may be sold as a budget range in shops.

UKIP's Stuart Agnew MEP, who is also a Norfolk farmer, welcomed the move.

"It's been a ridiculous situation for a long time with these EU directives determining what we can and cannot eat based simply on the way fruit and vegetables look," Mr Agnew said.

"So hopefully this will mean an end to the scandalous waste of perfectly good produce and even a drop in prices on the supermarket shelves."

Previously, cucumbers could be sold only if they curved less than 1cm for every 10cm. Cauliflowers had to measure 11cm in diameter and forked carrots were a no-no.

In all, 26 fruits and vegetables, including brussels sprouts, carrots, cherries and plums, were covered by the restrictions.

Britain's big supermarkets welcomed the change. Sainsbury’s, which lobbied for the rule change, said: “It’ll reduce waste,” while Tesco added: “We look forward to selling curvy cucumbers and knobbly carrots.”

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