UK government decides to keep EU ‘bendy bananas’ regulation despite Brexit

Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. The widely parodied rule lays down marketing standards for bananas across Europe and says they must be "free from malformation or abnormal curvature". The regulation has sometimes been the subject of hyperbolic reporting in the British press claiming the EU had "banned bendy bananas". A 2016 fact-checking exercise by European Parliament Liaison Office in the United Kingdom described claims Brussels wanted to "ban" bendy bananas as the "myth to end all myths" about the EU. The government says that it will retain the powers to scrap former EU regulation – which means it could liberalise or otherwise amend rules relating to the shape of bananas in the future.