Curvacious cucumbers are literally getting the chop at a York superstore because of a Eurocratic ruling over how bendy the veg should be.

Asda is taking its beef to the very top of the food chain - challenging EU commissioner Franz Fichler, asking him to relax curvature rules on cucumbers.

Superstore bosses have discovered that they can't classify all their organic range of cucumbers as Class I because to get this seal of quality the green should have "a maximum arc of 10mm per 10cm" - under rule 1677/88.

Organic cucumbers are less uniform in shape than normal ones, and have to be demoted to Class IIs because they can have a curliness of up to 20mm per 10cm.

Asda in York has got round the problem by quite legally chopping the organic Class IIs in half and selling each portion as a Class I vegetable.

The company's produce director Peter Pritchard said: "It's clear that EU red tape needs to catch up with the massive demand for organic fruit and veg."