Fruit and vegetable rules lifted

The red tape of “unnecessary marketing standards” has fallen — that is: no more European Union rules on fruit and vegetable size. That is one less gripe for eurosceptics. Brussels said the scrapped measure had put a dent in revenues and created waste.

Twenty-six fruits and vegetables are now free to grow their own way. But ten — including peaches, pears and tomatoes — still have to watch the scales.

A retailer in Romania welcomed the return of leguminous permissiveness: “The plant is not producing same quality vegetables. Some of them are small some of them are big, but the taste is the same. This is good for people. For instance, pensioners can pay less: I’ve got three different prices according to different quality of green peppers.”

The new rules put fruit and vegetables into the national sovereignty basket. Even the ten high-value ones still subject to EU rule can be sold, provided they are labelled differently from ‘class I’, ‘class II’ and ‘extra’.