Bent courgettes and cucumbers, misshapen garlic, warped leeks and onions? Who sets the rules?

One of the most popular jibes about EU over-regulation, where zealous Brussels bureaucrats are portrayed as wanting to set permitted sizes, lengths – and "bendiness" – for household fruit and vegetables, has come back to haunt the European Union.

But this time, Brussels wants to cut the red tape and get rid of what it calls "unnecessary marketing standards".