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There's good news for everyone this week as the EU changes the law on the sale of mis-shapen fruit and vegetables.

The change comes into effect on Wednesday and will open the door to cheaper fruit and vegetables that taste just as good as those that are perfectly formed.

The good news for consumers is that stores claim the shift will allow them to sell value packs of wonky fruit and vegetables for as little as 50p each.

The move will also cut down on food wastage. Currently as much as 20per cent of farm produce is thrown away or fed to farm livestock because it doesn't match the size and shape rules drawn up by the EU.

Restrictions are being swept away on 26 of the original 36 products covered by the EU directive. The rules will remain in place for another ten types of produce; apples, citrus fruit, kiwi fruit, lettuces, peaches and nectarines, pears, strawberries, sweet peppers, table grapes and tomatoes. However, the commission said farmers will be also allowed to sell wonky versions of these providing they are sold with a label stating 'products intended for processing'.

The Food and Farming Minister Jim Fitzpatrick said: "The new marketing regulations will help supermarkets and greengrocers label their fruit and vegetables correctly, and will provide more choice for people who aren't bothered by what shape their five a day comes in."

Not before time! For generations, Britons enjoyed the quirks of fruit and veg. Odd looking carrots and potatoes even earned their own comedy slot on popular TV programmes like That's Life. I'm sure we'll all look forward to seeing them back on the shelves!

Will you be rushing out to buy curly cucumbers and knobbly carrots or do you like your fresh produce to look perfectly formed?

Eating curry can help beat the stress of the recession thanks to the release of pleasure-inducing endorphins, new research claims.

Chicken or beef madras is most likely to bring stress relief, according to the research by takeaway food website www.Just-Eat.co.uk. Vindaloo, Thai red curry, pasanda and jalfrezi were the next most effective.

Researchers found spicy curries had similar stress-busting properties to exercise, with the inclusion of red chilli peppers thought to be key to their impact.

Although Chinese food has replaced Indian as the top choice for takeaways, Indian cuisine has long been a favourite in the UK and recent research from Mintel shows sales of Indian food products surpassed Chinese food sales by £189m in the last year alone - suggesting Britons favour cooking Indian food at home. They are also turning their backs on ready meals in order to cook their own healthier versions.

Not only do red chilli peppers help relieve stress, they are a good source of vitamins A and C, have been shown to lower cholesterol levels and reduce the spread of prostrate cancer.

The press is continually highlighting food and drink that has adverse affects on our health so it comes as a welcome respite to find something that is good for us. And their use does not need to be confined solely to curries. Red chilli peppers can be used to spice up a multitude of dishes.

Do you regularly include red chillis in your diet and if so have you discovered their stress-busting properties?

The Sunday Times published the 2009 UK 'rich list' last weekend. As you would expect many people have seen their fortunes dwindle over the past year due to the global recession. But there are a few food industry winners.

Sir Ken Morrison and family have leapt 36 places up the list to position no. 16, increasing their wealth by 11% to £1,610m.

Lord Sainsbury and his family haven't fared so well however. Whilst they increased their ranking from 56= last year to 37= their wealth has decreased by £200m to a mere £1,100m.

Food recycling can also be a profitable business. Another winner in this year's list is Anthony de Mulder and his family. Doncaster-based Prosper de Mulder is a waste food recycling specialist, collecting and processing more than 1m tonnes each year. The family has seen an increase of £45m up to £130m over the past year.

The world rankings paint a very rosy picture for Karl and Theo Albrecht, the German entrepreneurs who founded the discount supermarket chain Aldi. They increased their wealth by £2.9bn to £27.9bn and come into at no. 2 behind the Walton family who created Walmart and who enjoyed a whopping £13.9bn rise in riches over the past year giving them a family fortune of £52.3bn.

The top 2 families in the world rankings are heavily committed to the discount market. Should the rest of the food industry sit up and take note? We'd love to hear your views...

Made with Tony's Secret Formula, they're Gr-r-reat! Not only are Kellogg's Frosties super crunchy and great tasting, they are packed with carbohydrates - a great fuel for your body, and one serving provides half your daily needs (RDA) of three B-vitamins, which help convert food into the energy you need. A Gr-r-reat-tasting breakfast cereal!

That's the description on the Kellogg's website for one of the children's favourite breakfast foods. But what it doesn't tell us is that the popular cereal is laden with sugar.

The latest report, Going Against the Grain, from consumer group Which?, tells us that many brands perceived to be healthy, including Kellogg's All Bran, Bran Flakes and Special K have high levels of sugar. Morrisons Choco Crackles cereal tops the sweet mountain with more sugar to a serving than a Cadbury Flake, followed closely by Kellogg's Coco Pops Moons and Stars, Frosties and Ricicles, which were more than a third - 37% - pure sugar, according to the Which? report.

In fact only eight of the products surveyed qualified for a Food Standards Agency healthy "green light" for low levels of sugar, with 31 out the 100 cereals examined containing more than four teaspoons of sugar to a recommended serving. Only one of the 28 cereals specifically marketed at children, Kellogg's Rice Krispies, was found not to be high in sugar, but it was high in salt. Nestle Shredded Wheat was the only cereal to show a green lights in all categories.

Sue Davies, chief policy adviser at Which?, said: "Some cereals deserve their healthy image, but most simply don't. It's especially shocking that almost all those targeted at children are less healthy."

Cereal manufacturers need "to wake up to the fact that people want to eat healthily and provide them with the means to do so by reducing sugar and salt levels and making labelling clearer", she added. "With over £1bn spent every year, it's time they rose to the occasion."

The Change4Life campaign was launched in January to tackle soaring rates of obesity by promoting healthy eating and exercise. Official statistics from the National Child Measurement programme suggest that 22 per cent of children are overweight or obese by the time they start school, while nearly a third (31 per cent) fall into these categories at age 10 or 11.

But changing kids eating habits overnight poses a potential problem for parents. Anyone with young children will know that a major problem is trying to get them to eat the right foods. How many times have you heard child screaming 'I don't want that, I want ....? And how many times have you given in for the sake of a little peace and quiet?

Are you one of those who has tried and failed to introduce a beneficial eating plan to your children? Or have you been successful in implementing a healthy diet and exercise regime? We'd love to hear your experiences...

Marks & Spencer is hoping to cash in on the popularity of retro products as well as consumers' appetite for low-price comfort food with the launch of a jam sandwich.

The basic sandwich, comprising just strawberry jam, butter and white bread, will go on sale in M&S stores from next week, priced at 75p.

"We are delighted to be launching this national favourite," said M&S sandwich specialist Katy Patino. "It really is the ultimate comfort food at an unbeatable price - plus, it's the only place on the high street where you can get a jam sandwich. For those who haven't eaten one for years, one bite takes you straight back to your childhood."

Are Marks and Spencer losing the plot in their bid to win back customers? They may well be the only place on the high street to stock jam sandwiches but isn't that because they're so easy and cheap to make at home?

It seems Jamie Oliver knows best, as new research suggests the celebrity chef's healthy school dinners have helped to improve exam results and classroom attendance.

An independent study shows the performance of 11-year-old pupils eating Oliver's meals improved by up to 8% in science and as much as 6% in English, while absenteeism due to ill-health fell by 15%.

The findings, from a report by the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) at Essex University, vindicate the chef's decision to banish fat-laden Turkey Twizzlers and replace them with iron-rich foods such as red meat and green vegetables.

Oliver's new menus, adopted by 81 out of 88 primary and secondary schools in Greenwich, included more pasta and fresh fruit, plus dishes such as Mexican bean wraps, chickpea soup and vegetable chow mein. Hayley Franklin, 11, from John Roan School in Blackheath, southeast London, said: "The new dinners give me much more energy, for longer, so I can concentrate on work through the whole day."

In a country where education standards appear to have fallen, especially in the sciences, this has to be good news for teachers and parents alike.

The current Change4Life campaign is urging us to make changes to our diet and levels of activity. Whilst we can't dictate what people eat in their own homes, food industry professionals can go a long way towards encouraging people to eat healthily while at work.

If the new menus work for the Greenwich school kids, will they work for adults? If staff canteens adopt a similar approach can we expect to see a more productive workforce?

What do you think? Would a tasty pasta dish appeal to your midday palate or are you a fast food junkie who couldn't survive the day without your pizza or burger fix?

Internet retailer Amazon is to take on the major supermarkets with the launch of an online food store.

Industry experts say the ambitious plans are a huge threat to Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda and Morrisons.

Amazon is expected to emulate its US grocery offer, comprising more than 45,000 non-perishable food, drink and household items, in this country. Although fresh items would not be on offer at the launch, Amazon is currently testing the viability of selling perishable foods in the Northwest U.S. A launch date has yet to be announced but industry sources said it is likely to be this year.

Grocery shopping from Amazon has proved popular with American customers who enjoy discounts for buying in bulk, a function to create regular shopping lists and free delivery.

Amazon.co.uk is the UK's biggest online retailer, best known for selling cut-price books, DVDs and electrical items. But will it be easy for them to penetrate the Internet grocery market? Discounts for bulk buying should be welcomed by UK consumers but will the lack of fresh produce deter many customers? Do we want to login to two separate online stores when we can get everything we need from the likes of Tesco or Sainsbury's?

The Tesco Group has delivered a strong performance and record sales over the Christmas and New Year period. Group sales increased by 11.6% during the seven weeks to 10 January 2009, driven by continued rapid international expansion and steady growth in the UK.

In the UK, like-for-like sales, excluding petrol, increased by 2.5% in the period. Tesco reports like-for-like sales inclusive of VAT - and adjusting for the reduction in VAT rates, which came into effect in early December, growth on a comparable basis was 3.5%. Although this is likely to be substantially behind the figures of Sainsbury's, Morrisons and Asda, Tesco has strongly hinted it is preparing to further step on the accelerator in the price war raging in the grocery sector.

City analysts said Tesco's underlying UK sales had been dented by the launch of its lower-priced discounter branded products in September. Andrew Higginson, Tesco's chief executive of retailing services, said: "They [discounter brands] have been fairly well received by customers. It is a long game and you have to wait to see how it pans out."

Tesco's non-food performance strengthened a little compared to the third quarter and their services businesses have performed well. In addition the group's overseas businesses also proved profitable over the festive period, delivering a total international sales increase of 32.7%.

Although they may be lagging between their major rivals in the food sector, the group as a whole is looking healthy.

So what is the next logical step for Tesco to take to remain competitive in the supermarket price war? Should they continue with the lower cash margin [discounter] brands, or follow Sainsbury's lead and move from branded products into higher-margin own-label products?

What influences you most when you do your weekly grocery shopping? Do you go for branded, own-label or discount products?

As always we welcome your comments...

Local food-buying cooperatives, which cut out the middlemen between producers and consumers, are taking the country by storm.

The concept is far from new, but it's proving increasingly popular. "Interest is definitely growing," says John Atherton of Co-operatives UK, an organisation that supports cooperative enterprise across Britain. "We're seeing rising numbers of buying groups and community shops. It's a trend that is set to continue."

As well as cutting out the middlemen, cooperatives are jointly owned and democratically controlled by their members - and it is the members who are the beneficiaries of the activities of the business.

Across Britain, food co-ops are sprouting up in school halls, community centres, farm sheds or even your neighbour's front room - anywhere, in fact, where rent is free.

The system is simple: find a supplier, buy in bulk and collectively cover the costs. Smaller co-ops will only buy what participants have ordered, whereas larger organisations operate as markets or even set up their own shops. Some of these "community" co-ops invite customers to become members. You pay a nominal fee to be able to shop from it, or have a say in how it is run.

So what are the benefits? In Trealaw, a small community in the Rhondda Valley, they have an Aldi, Lidl and an Asda and yet the Food Co-op has around 200 members. They collect their pre-ordered fruit and veg. every Thursday and reckon that for £3 you get what would cost you about £7 in the local supermarket.

Many cooperatives get their fresh supplies from local farms thus helping their local community and on top of that there's no expensive packaging to pay for.

Will the trend continue and more and more people use their local co-op or will the supermarkets bring down the prices of their fresh produce to win back customers? Do you use a local food cooperative and if so how does it compare in terms of quality and price?

Convenience foods have become a fact of life especially for consumers with demanding and hectic lifestyles. Eating out, takeaways and other convenience foods can be expensive and as the credit crunch continues to bite will customers turn away from these foods and return to traditional home cooking?

The Mirror told us recently that cash-starved Britons are turning their backs on expensive convenience foods and returning to the kitchen. They quoted a survey of 1,072 adults carried out by Morrisons which suggests 85 per cent of us are cooking at home again.

Justin King, the chief executive of Sainsbury's agrees. More recently, said the Sainsbury's boss, sales of heat-and-eat ready meals have gone into decline. Shoppers "are trading away from ready meals to buying fresh food and ingredients to save money", he said. The exception, he added, was sales of heat-and-eat Chinese and Indian meals, which are "growing strongly, replacing takeaways".

The ready meal sector within the UK suddenly finds itself fighting to maintain the dramatic growth it has seen over the last 10 years. According to research published earlier this year by Mintel, sales of ready meals, both frozen and chilled, represent 7% of all main meal occasions in the UK. Totalling a forecast market value of £2.1 billion in 2008, these statistics go some way to explaining the reputation within Europe of the UK as a country that has forgotten how to cook and is now viewed as the European capital of the ready meal.

For retailers, the battle to keep the sector growing will demand greater R&D and a continued emphasis on healthy, fresh ingredients. It is also clear that with the economy under pressure, price and value will figure strongly. M&S, for example, has been heavily promoting 2 meals for £10 - including 2 main meals, side dish, desserts and a bottle of wine.

So what's going to be on the menu for Christmas lunch in your household this year? Will you be enjoying the delicious smell of roast turkey wafting throughout the house, or nuking a Bird's Eye Roast Turkey Platter? I know which one I'd go for...