Curly cucumbers, crooked carrots and mottled mushrooms – odd-looking fruit and vegetables are making a comeback as 20-year-old EU rules are lifted.

Marketing standards for 26 types of produce have been scrapped, in a drive to cut EU bureaucracy.

The standards will remain in place for 10 of the most popular types. But with an appropriate label shops will be able to sell “ugly” specimens of these too.

“July 1 marks the return to our shelves of the curved cucumber and the knobbly carrot,” said Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel.

“We don’t need to regulate this sort of thing at EU level. It is far better to leave it to market operators.

“The changes also mean that consumers will be able to choose from the widest range of products possible. It makes no sense to throw perfectly good products away, just because they are the ‘wrong’ size and shape,” she said.

The rules were introduced to ensure common EU standards, but are regarded by critics as examples of Euro-madness.

Some 20% of produce is rejected by shops across the EU because it fails to meet the current requirements.

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. BBC.

The trouble is.

Rules will remain unchanged for 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. BBC.

Still

Member States may also exempt these from the standards if they are sold in the shops with an appropriate label. In practical terms, this means that an apple which does not meet the standard may still be sold in the shop, as long as it is labelled “product intended for processing” or equivalent wording. Europa.

Which is completely daft what is a shopper to make of the label “product intended for processing” it sounds ominous when in fact it means fruit of non-standard shape – you know we are all capable of deciding what shape fruit and vegetables we want to buy. As I said EU does itself no favours.