Euro-Onions Now Free to Differ

Stephen Castle of The New York Times reports from Brussels that the European Union has mostly done away with rules that banned "extra knobbly or oddly shaped produce" from grocery stores. The previous report that we cited on the matter concluded that Mariann Fischer Boel, the Danish European Commissioner for Agriculture faced "an uphill and probably losing battle" to simplify the regulations. The New York Times report quotes a now triumphant Boel as saying, "This marks a new dawn for the curvy cucumber and the knobbly carrot."

The rules were scrapped for 26 different types of fruits and vegetables, including cucumbers, carrots, and onions, but left ten other types including apples, peaches, pears, and strawberries, still subject to regulation.  While the article mostly seems to suggest that the rules were absurd, it does note that 16 countries were against dropping the regulations – implying that doing so could lead to even more complicated national standards for fruit and vegetables. Establishing a single market with common rules throughout the 27 member states is a primary commitment of the European Union.

Further Reading:

• The Times Reprieve for curvy cucumbers and crooked carrots as EU bends rules
• The Nation The Cucumber Laws that Drove a Nation Bananas