TRUE OR FALSE. Does the European Union regulate even the size of cucumbers and cherry tomatoes, as Jean-Philippe Tanguy says?

In the middle of the campaign for the European elections, the National Rally deputy considers the European Union “stifling” with its regulations. He assures that it regulates “up to the pruning of cucumbers and cherry tomatoes”. This is false, there have been no regulations on the size of cucumbers since 2009. For tomatoes, the most common are exempt.

“The European Union got involved in everything and anything”. In the middle of the campaign for the European elections, the deputy and deputy president of the National Rally group in the National Assembly, Jean-Philippe Tanguy, denounces the regulations of the European Union. “She wants to take more and more power, regulate down to the size of cucumbers and cherry tomatoes, she is stifling,” he says, Sunday May 19, in Political Questions, on franceinfo, France Inter and The world. Does the European Union regulate even the size of cucumbers and cherry tomatoes?

There is a lot of falsehood and a little truth. There was indeed regulation in the past to harmonize the size of fruit and vegetables in the European Union, but it was repealed 15 years ago. This old regulation, signed in 1988, notably regulated the size and shape of cucumbers. “extra”of “category 1” and of “category 2”. The first cities, for example, must have had a “maximum arc height of 10 millimeters”.

But this regulation was repealed in 2009 to “reduce unnecessary administrative burden”specified the European Commission at the time. “Thanks to these changes, consumers will also have the opportunity to choose from the widest possible range of products. It makes no sense to throw away perfectly edible products simply because they are irregular in size and shape.”, added the institution. The marketing standards for 26 products were removed at the time, for apricots, artichokes, avocados, zucchini, cucumbers and even onions.

Today, the size and shape of cucumbers are no longer regulated. The only obligation concerns the quality of the product: cucumbers, like all marketed fruits and vegetables, must be “intact, healthy, clean, practically free from parasites”, but also “be of sufficient maturity nor overripe”. It is the producers and distributors themselves who decide on the size of the fruits and vegetables on sale.

For tomatoes, the situation is a little different. In 2009, the regulation governing the size and shape of fruits and vegetables was repealed except for a list of fruits and vegetables: apples, citrus fruits, kiwis, lettuces, peaches and nectarines, pears, strawberries, peppers, table grapes and tomatoes. Specific marketing standards apply for these products. There are therefore regulations but what Jean-Philippe Tanguy does not say is that the sizing standards do not apply to all tomatoes. Cherry tomatoes and grape tomatoes, the most common, are exempt. “Category 2” tomatoes as well.