Curvacious cucumbers are literally getting the chop at a York superstore because of a Eurocratic ruling over how bendy the veg should be.
Asda is taking its beef to the very top of the food chain - challenging EU commissioner Franz Fichler, asking him to relax curvature rules on cucumbers.
Superstore bosses have discovered that they can't classify all their organic range of cucumbers as Class I because to get this seal of quality the green should have "a maximum arc of 10mm per 10cm" - under rule 1677/88.
Organic cucumbers are less uniform in shape than normal ones, and have to be demoted to Class IIs because they can have a curliness of up to 20mm per 10cm.
Asda in York has got round the problem by quite legally chopping the organic Class IIs in half and selling each portion as a Class I vegetable.
The company's produce director Peter Pritchard said: "It's clear that EU red tape needs to catch up with the massive demand for organic fruit and veg."
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