Italian farmers' associations on Wednesday came out against a European Union decision to relax its rules on the sale of bent cucumbers and knobbly carrots.
The EU said earlier in the day that it will lift its much derided ban on the sale of 'ugly' fruit and vegetables for 26 products, including onions, aubergines and apricots, from July 2009.
But the 20-year-old regulations will continue to govern the dimension and weight of ten other fruits and vegetables, including tomatoes, strawberries and pears.
''Today's decision is an extremely serious error that unfortunately penalises Italian producers, along with those in other Mediterranean countries such as Spain and Greece,'' said Italian farmers' association CIA.
Fedagri, another farmers' association, described the abolition of minimum standards as ''a real mockery for consumers'', who would end up spending the same amount for both high and low quality produce and would no longer have ''parameters for comparison'' when choosing fruit and vegetables.
Farmers' union Coldiretti also warned that consumers would suffer as a result of the move.
''People will have to pay attention to packaging where the best fruit and vegetables have been positioned at the front in order to hide inferior ones,'' it added.
Italy, Spain, Greece and France - the EU's largest fruit and vegetable producing nations - had all opposed the relaxation of the market standards, arguing that they would eliminate guarantees of quality in EU produce.
But the United Kingdom and other, largely northern European, countries had lobbied for the repeal of the regulations, with British supermarkets claiming they had to throw away some 40% of edible fruit and vegetables because of visual flaws under the EU rules.
EC Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel said that in the light of increasing food prices customers should be able to choose from ''the widest range of products possible''.
