CEE leaders to call for action against food 'double standards'

Leaders of the Visegrad Group countries – Poland, Czechia, Slovakia and Hungary will meet next week in Warsaw to convince the EU to act against food companies which, according to them, put inferior ingredients in products destined for sale in poorer member states. “We want to call on the Commission to take legislative measures that would ban such practice ... that humiliates people and creates two categories of people,” Slovak PM Robert Fico said. Consumer groups and governments have complained that some food producers use cheaper ingredients in products for the CEE market than in identically-branded goods to be sold in Germany and Austria. This practice is not against the current EU regulations. Slovakian Agriculture Ministry last week presented results of laboratory tests showing half of 22 products bought in Bratislava, differed in taste, looks and composition from equivalents bought in two Austrian towns across the border.