It seems like people are very interested in the topic of #food so I'll be doing a few more food-related posts on my account in the coming days.

[hpod16@eupolicy.social]

@nCrazed @dalcacer
Thanks for weighing in... I distinctly remember this being an EU story around 2017, and being raised by some Eastern European MEPs, specifically with the example of Nutella. I do wonder what came of it... When I have time, I want to dive into this with me special research skills...

[dalcacer@mas.to]

@hpod16 @nCrazed I‘ll support the research with a swift Nutella tasting. I’m feeling a little bit scientific and adventurous.

[hpod16@eupolicy.social]

@dalcacer @nCrazed
I'll admit this thread also made me crave chocolate, I just had an alpro soy chocolate pudding the power of suggestion and sugar addiction!

[dalcacer@mas.to]

@hpod16 @nCrazed All for the sake of research!

[soaproot@sfba.social]

@hpod16 I may regret suggesting this one, but phytosanitary standards for importing food from non-EU countries? Like what are the standards like (in general) and how much do they vary based on where the food is being imported from?

[hpod16@eupolicy.social]

@soaproot I have to admit I had to google phytosanitary.
Well, standards for anything that can be imported are negotiated when trade deals are struck.
I dog-sit for this guy who is a trade negotiator, and once waited around while overhearing a call of him discussing different types of fish. But that's fish, not plants. I'll have to look into plants. Thanks for the question!

[soaproot@sfba.social]

@hpod16 Take the question however you'd like. I was particularly thinking of how the trade deals interact with EU laws/regulations, but even how phytosanitary standards work just within the EU could be its own topic, if you wanted to go that direction.

[hpod16@eupolicy.social]

@dalcacer @nCrazed
It's been a while, but I am back with some research!

Turns out we were not imagining the case of dual food quality products in Europe. In 2017, the European Parliament asked the Commission to answer for this: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/E-8-2017-001731_EN.html

According to this, for example in Slovakia, over 50% of food soldwas of significantly lower quality (in terms of fat, preservatives and artificial substances) than the equivalent products sold in other Member States.

[hpod16@eupolicy.social]

@dalcacer @nCrazed
Following this, in 2017, Commission President Juncker addressed this in his big State of the Union #SOTEU speech.
Quote:
*I will not accept that in some parts of Europe, people are sold food of lower quality than in other countries, despite the packaging and branding being identical. We must now equip national authorities with stronger powers to cut out any illegal practices wherever they exist.*
https://commission.europa.eu/publications/dual-quality-food_en

[hpod16@eupolicy.social]

@dalcacer @nCrazed
It was found that these practices violate existing consumer protection rules. And it falls under unfair commercial practices.
The Commission did extensive research mapping the problem, and empowered national authorities to go against cases where this happens.

Quality differences

CPC authorities help to investigate "dual quality" practices that mislead consumers.

European Commission (commission.europa.eu)