Strict beauty standards for fruit and vegetables need to be relaxed

What many people don't know is that fruit and vegetables are also subject to a cult of beauty. You can imagine how strict this is if a new EU regulation is needed to allow crooked fruit to be sold over the counter.

Kind of weird.

Relaxation for less waste

By relaxing the rules on unsightly fruit and vegetables, the EU Commission wants to counteract excessive sorting and discarding. Produce with external defects should at least be allowed to be sold directly on site,

Short delivery routes and moderate prices are just the advantages that are immediately obvious - it remains to be seen how strange our society, which is over-regulated by standards, is that such problems can occur at all.

The appearance of fruit and vegetables is therefore so strictly standardized that tons of edible fruit fall victim to this ideal - so that it can then be relaxed again at great bureaucratic expense...

The Commission has therefore proposed to revise the current standardization for a range of agri-food products. This should "enable consumers to make informed choices for a healthier diet and help prevent food waste", it says.

An additional point of revision, which we have already reported on, is to make labeling of certain foods such as honey, nuts or dried fruit mandatory, in which all countries of origin must be listed in future.

https://news.pro.earth/2023/04/18/vorsicht-beim-honigkauf/

"We want to improve the transparency of products sold to consumers," said Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski.

The fruit content in jams and preserves is also to be increased by 100 grams per kilo.

Fruit juices should also be labeled more clearly on the subject of added sugar. "No added sugar", unlike nectar, is not allowed anyway - but who knows?