Neil Parish, a Conservative MEP and chairman of the European Parliament's agriculture committee, said: "Food is food, no matter what it looks like. He adds that it should be good news for hard-pressed consumers who will see cheaper - if slightly misshapen - vegetables appearing in the shops. Over the years the commission's regulations on fruit and vegetables became more restrictive - until stories about straight bananas became part of European folklore, the BBC's Dominic Hughes in Brussels says. "So, yes it has been a cause of much criticism towards the European Union, and let's be frank, that is also a factor in why we are getting rid of it."Ī spokesman for the UK's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) welcomed the commission decision, saying "it is a sensible first step on the way to further streamlining of the regulations". In an interview with the BBC's Newshour programme, the agriculture commissioner's spokesman Michael Mann said: "I have spent the last four years dealing with headlines about bendy cucumbers and oversized, undersized kiwi fruits and God knows what. The new rules are expected to come into force on 1 July 2009. So an apple which does not meet the standard could still be sold, as long as it were labelled "product intended for processing" or equivalent wording, the commission says. However, the commission says shops will be allowed to sell these products provided they are labelled appropriately. The rules will remain unchanged for another 10 types of produce, which account for 75% of EU fruit and vegetable trade: apples, citrus fruit, kiwi fruit, lettuces, peaches and nectarines, pears, strawberries, sweet peppers, table grapes and tomatoes. The 26 types are: apricots, artichokes, asparagus, aubergines, avocadoes, beans, Brussels sprouts, carrots, cauliflowers, cherries, courgettes, cucumbers, cultivated mushrooms, garlic, hazelnuts in shell, headed cabbage, leeks, melons, onions, peas, plums, ribbed celery, spinach, walnuts in shell, water melons and witloof/chicory. It is far better to leave it to market operators," she said. Learn more or follow us on Facebook and Twitter."We simply don't need to regulate this sort of thing at EU level. All opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the policies or positions of NRDC. OnEarth provides reporting and analysis about environmental science, policy, and culture. After all, it’s what’s on the inside that counts. So quit judging perfectly edible food by its cosmetically challenged cover and #DemandUgly. But that funky-looking fruit is just as nutritious and delicious as its pristine kin. Grocery stores lose an estimated $15 billion every year in unsold fruits and veggies that they don’t even put on the shelves because they think customers will turn up their noses at anything with a bump or blemish. Making matters worse, once all that food hits the landfill, it rots and produces methane, a potent greenhouse gas.Īccording to NRDC ( disclosure), reducing food waste in this country by just 15 percent could feed 25 million hungry Americans -and the produce aisle is a good place to start. In the United States, between 30 percent and 40 percent of all food is thrown away every year-wasted, too, is the water, land, and energy needed to grow and transport it. ambassador for Feedback, an organization dedicated to combating the global food-waste problem, Figueiredo is on a mission to keep good food out of the garbage: one misshapen carrot at a time. But the account, launched in December by Jordan Figueiredo, isn’t just for laughs. Follow on Twitter and your feed will fill with heart-shaped spuds, bootylicious pears, and tomatoes doing Michael Jordan impressions.
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