A critical eye for perfect produce regulations

To put a fine point on it, what's the point of regulations that dictate produce quality when the world is facing food shortages? Europe is considering that question, and this report in The Washington Post reviews the terms of the debate. Why must a cucumber be straight and a peach be sweet?


Had enough? So has the European Commission's agriculture commissioner, Mariann Fischer Boel of Denmark. She proposes scrapping all but 10 of the regulations, arguing that they are needlessly cumbersome and bureaucratic, and that they lead to people throwing away perfectly edible fruits and vegetables for cosmetic reasons at a time when the world is suffering food shortages and rapid price increases. She hopes representatives from the 27-nation bloc will vote to streamline the regulations at a meeting this month.
"We don't need 34 regulations to decide how round an artichoke should be or how thin a cucumber can be," said Boel's spokesman, Michael Mann, noting that such rules give the E.U. its reputation as an out-of-control bureaucracy. "A bent cucumber is as good as a straight one," he declared. "Let the shopper decide."


But as you might guess, the produce trade in Europe isn't sold on the idea. Many marketers of fresh produce in the U.S. also insist that mandatory quality controls are needed to preserve consumer acceptance. From the story:

But Boel has a fight on her hands, European officials say, because as many as 19 E.U. countries apparently oppose the simplification scheme. A note to the European Commission from the Spanish and Italian delegations, backed by France and Hungary, argued that "marketing standards play an important role in facilitating and ensuring transparency in market operations while protecting customers at the same time."
The regulations are particularly ridiculed in Britain, where, according to a recent article in the Independent newspaper, "the bent cucumber -- beside its maligned compatriot, the straight banana -- has been wielded by Eurosceptics eager to clobber the European Union." London's Daily Mail gushed that "bendy cucumbers, nobbly strawberries and apples the wrong shade of red are to make a comeback in our supermarkets."


TK: The obvious take is that quality regulations should be ditched. Yet, as some voices in Europe say, regulations help define how produce is sold and bring order to marketing. Not so simple as a bent or straight cucumber.