The Myth of the Straight Banana

Photo © Rob Jones

So I was breakfasting this morning….

and found a straight banana. It was alone.

And then I remembered all the fuss about how the officials in Brussels intended to make all such bananas straight one day. Only it wasn’t true. It is what they call a ‘Euromyth.’

So where did the suggestion come from? And why do people still cling onto the idea so ferociously?

The alleged climb down on bendy bananas goes back to a Euro rule which set standards for quality and size, minimum dimensions etc.. However the rule only said bananas should be free of ‘abnormal curvature.’

How do you judge if a banana has a normal or abnormal curve to it?

And in fact a proposal to ban straight bananas and other misshapen fruits was defeated in the European Parliament way back in 2008. That same year there was a decision to repeal any standardisation rules because they were leading to too much waste. Some reports talk of at least 20% of all perfectly good produce being thrown away just because it didn’t come up to visual scratch.

Such was the habit of spreading nonsense in the Media, the British government back in 2010 made it policy to challenge myths such as bans on bendy bananas, mince pies, prawn cocktail crisps, and mushy peas.

One episode of that evergreen TV comedy Yes Minister in 1984 included a plotline whereby the European Commission wanted to rename the Great British Sausage an ‘Emulsified High Fat Offal Tube,’ as it didn’t contain much meat.

Regardless of the facts - ask anyone in the street and they’ll trot out the myth, as if it is fact, and rigorously defend their position.

Call me a rebel, but I enjoyed my straight banana.

R.