It means that curvy cucumbers, wonky aubergines and carrots shaped like a "thingy", as Baldrick would say, will be back in our shops from July next year rather than heading for the bin.

The EU's fruit and veg management committee yesterday dropped the rules regarding 26 types of fruit and vegetables after growing protests from farmers, grocers, and even supermarkets, who have been forced to throw away produce that don't measure up to the pedantic standards drawn up by Eurocrats decades ago.

An estimated 20 per cent of British produce is thrown away to comply with the EU regulations, rules which have been calculated to add as much as 40 per cent to the price of some vegetables.

The folly of these regulations was highlighted a couple of weeks ago when Sainsbury's was forced to ditch a healthy Hallowe'en eating campaign built around "zombie brains" cauliflowers, "witches' fingers" carrots and "ogre's toenails" cucumbers – all mis-shapen vegetables currently banned from sale under EU rules.

Environment Secretary Hilary Benn summed up many people's feelings when he said: "Frankly, if shops want to sell, and consumers want to buy, funny-shaped carrots and turnips then I do not really see what the problem is."

The decision to relax the rules was widely applauded, prompting Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel to declare a "new dawn" for all cosmetically-challenged fruit and vegetables.

"It's a concrete example of our drive to cut unnecessary red tape. We simply don't need to regulate this sort of thing at EU level. It is far better to leave it to market operators.

"And in these days of high food prices and general economic difficulties, consumers should be able to choose from the widest range of products possible. It makes no sense to throw perfectly good products away, just because they are the 'wrong' shape."

EU-wide marketing standards ensuring only the finest-looking produce reaches supermarket shelves have been in force for 20 years. But rather than create new regulations, eurocrats at the time were merely attempting to standardise existing laws across Europe.

Now, however, in a bid to reduce red tape and bureaucracy – and make cheaper food available as household bills rise – they're saying it's time the unnecessary restrictions were removed.

Scottish MEP Alyn Smith said it was good news for producers and growers, adding: "It may just perhaps even nail once and for all the myth that the EU regulates everything in sight."

Which begs the question whether the EU's decision to change the rules was as much about improving its public image as it was about helping growers and consumers?

Bananas, for instance, are governed by a completely different set of EU rules, while the marketing standards for another 10 types of fruit and veg, including apples and pears, which account for 75 per cent of EU fruit and veg trade, remain unchanged.

The Commission, though, points out that member states could still exempt those 10 from the rules on shape and size, as long as they were only sold "for processing" and were clearly labelled as such.

However, amid all the self-congratulation in Brussels, it remains to be seen whether people will be willing to buy blemished cherries and crooked carrots after years of having perfect-looking fruit and veg. Some retailers have suggested that when the mis-shapen produce does reach the shelves, it could be 40 per cent cheaper than the current "class one" fruit and veg.

But not everyone is happy at this prospect. Derek Hargreaves of Beverley, a cucumber-growing consultant and technical adviser to the Cucumber Growers Association, claims dropping the EU rules won't necessarily help growers.

"These standards existed before we joined the EU and I am thinking specifically of the cucumber standards, which were one of the first. Nobody bothers about the EU standards anyway, because it is the supermarket standards which govern what everybody does," he says.

"The only time you can sell rubbish is when there is nothing else and that is not the problem at the moment. The price of produce is already stupidly low in relation to soaring input costs so what is the point in bringing it down further?"