The UK media widely publicized apparent absurdities in directives received from the intergovernmental bureaucracy of the EEC/EU: carrots defined as fruit, the need to straighten cucumbers, and the like. In 1994 concern was expressed about an EEC/EU directive that prohibited stale bread from bakeries being fed to swans in the UK on the basis that it was effectively food waste requiring tight control and only disposable by an authorized person.