What Romanians
\nhad long found out has ultimately been agreed upon in Brussels too: the quality
\nof food products sold in East European countries, including Romania, as well as
\nBulgaria, Slovakia, Hungary or Poland, is inferior to that of similar products
\nsold in Western countries. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Formerly,
\nofficials from all those East European countries demanded that multinationals
\nbe no longer allowed to use low quality ingredients on the cheaper markets
\nwhere they deliver their products. For instance, 9 of the 29 food products
\nunder scrutiny by the Institute of Hygiene and Veterinary Public Health in
\nBucharest last year were different.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Those products
\nincluded canned fish, ham, bacon and bologna. These days, a report debated by
\nthe MPs in the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection in the
\nEuropean Parliament says that the problem of dual quality has been reported in
\nEast European countries and the phenomenon must be made known at all levels, so
\nthat pressure should be put on producers. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The question
\nwhich raises itself automatically is whether there was the producers’ intention
\nto cheat consumers. Moreover, the food labeling law must be amended because, as
\nEuro MPs say, the products sold with a similar packaging across the EU must be
\nthe same. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Actually, the
\ndiscussion should start from the fact that all EU consumers should be treated
\nin the same way. Furthermore, Euro MPs argue that quality tests should be extended
\nto other products too and not only to the food products because there are
\ndifferences in those cases too. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
According to the
\nBrussels correspondent for Radio Romania, the measures taken by the European
\nParliament add up to those already announced by the European Commission, which
\nhas developed a new methodology of comparing the quality of food products sold across
\nthe EU. That new methodology aims to clarify and strengthen the consumers’
\nrights, prohibiting the practices of applying double standards in the matter. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The national
\nauthorities in charge of food security and consumers’ protection are
\nresponsible for ensuring that the food placed on the Single Market complies
\nwith the relevant EU legislation. Consumers must also be informed about key
\ncharacteristics set in the EU food labeling law and should not be misled by the
\npackaging. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Under the
\ncoordination of the Joint Research Centre, laboratories in several EU member
\nstates will apply that methodology in a pan-European testing campaign to
\ncollect data on the scope gained by the dual product quality. The first results
\nare to be made public at the end of this year.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A European report confirms the dual quality of EU food products<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":78174,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[29288,29053,34283],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-78173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-brussels","tag-european-commission","tag-single-market"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n