Daily Express 29 Giugno 2008

Brussels bureaucrats have stopped a grocer from selling a batch of kiwi fruits – because EU rules say they are a millimetre too small.

Market trader Tim Down must now pay £100 to dump the 5,000 perfectly edible fruits which have failed size and weight standards brought in under European regulations.

Government inspectors also warned Mr Down, 53, from Bristol, that he faces a £5,000 fine if he tries to give them away.

The kiwis are just the latest example of heavy-handed EU marketing standards, joining the ranks of curved cucumbers, straight bananas and skinny carrots.

Conservative MEP for London Syed Kamall said last night: “At a time of rising food prices for British families it’s disgusting to see such a large amount of food condemned for very little good reason.

“As long as it’s safe it should be the customer who decides what is worth buying, not EU or Westminster bureaucrats.

“I think most people will find it offensive that Mr Down isn’t even allowed to give the kiwi fruit away.”

Shadow Leader of the House Theresa May said: “Rather than worrying about the size of kiwi fruits, inspectors should focus on areas of public welfare which are really under threat.”

UKIP’s Nigel Farage said: “This is the sort of insane regulation that does the EU immense harm.”

Former Home Office minister and Daily Express columnist Ann Widdecombe said: “This is overzealous rule-burdened Britain – we are constipated by regulation.”

Even officials inside the European Commission in Brussels said it was time to stop the interference.

A spokesman for Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel said: “We have had these regulations on fruit and veg for some years and quite frankly we have had the mickey taken out of us about them. We want to get rid of them.

“The Commissioner believes we should not be regulating this type of thing.”

Mr Down, a father-of-three and a trader for the past 25 years, said his family-run firm will suffer £1,000 in lost sales.

“It’s total nonsense,” he said. “I work hard enough to make a living without all these bureaucrats telling us what we can and can’t sell.”

He added: “I’ve been banned from selling them, but also banned from even giving them away.”

Mr Down fell foul of regulations after a visit by inspectors from the Rural Payments Agency – an arm of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

They searched a 10kg consignment of Chilean-grown kiwi fruits, more than half of which he had sold at 20p each. Rules state that Class II kiwis must weigh at least 62g – but the two-hour inspection found that some of the batch weighed 58g.

Selling them – or giving them away – is an offence under section 14 of the Agriculture and Horticulture Act 1964. Mr Down said that 4g in weight was equal to a millimetre in diameter.

He added: “They went through a lot of my stock using their own little scales. Then they dropped the bombshell – my kiwis were under weight by four grams.”

Customer Burt Smythe, a widower aged 65, said: “It means people like me have to pay more for my shopping, which I can’t afford. They need to keep their pen-pushing fingers to themselves.”

The Agency’s Barrie Stedman said inspectors aim to protect customers. He added: “They must feel confident that the produce they are buying is of the right quality.

“The trader concerned was offered options, including returning the fruit to the importer.”

By Nick Fagge

Source >  Daily Express