Bent cucumbers can be sold by retailers from next July

End to minimum shapes and sizes for 26 fruits and vegetables, such as aubergines and apricots, cherries, garlic, leeks, peas, spinach and watermelons. But 10 standards will remain.

 Misshapen fruit and vegetables may be
sold across the European Union from next year after member states
voted to scrap the bloc's much-maligned standards for size and
shape.

The move will help end years of jibes
about EU over-regulation in which European Commission bureaucrats are
portrayed as over-zealous, and at the same time provide more
affordable fruit and vegetables amid high food prices.

10
categories account for three-quarters of EU cross-border fruit and
vegetable trade. However, governments could let shops sell these 10
products as long as they are labeled properly. For example, an apple
not meeting the standard may still be sold as long as it is labeled
"product intended for processing" or equivalent wording.