Strasbourg, May 18 (CTK special correspondent) – Czech MEP Michaela Sojdrova hosted tasting foodstuffs of the same brands bought in the West and East of the European Union in the seat of the European Parliament (EP) within a meeting at which MEPs asked the European Commission questions about the issue on Thursday.
MEPs from the new EU member countries want the commission to say what measures it will take to end “the practices splitting the single market” in the food sphere.
MEPs and EP employees could compare the taste of the same food, which only differed by the part of the EU in which it is sold, within the Taste the Difference event, prepared by Sojdrova and Croatian MEP Dubravka Suica.
They offered cheese, ham, potato crisps, ketchups and chocolate spreads with hazelnuts.
Sojdrova said tests made in the Czech Republic, in Slovakia, Hungary or Croatia prove that the same products sold in various parts of Europe not only have a different taste, but a different composition and quality.
“We do not want consumers to be deceived…If something has the same name, it should have the same quality,” she told CTK.
Some producers’ arguments that people in different countries have different tastes may be true to some degree, but the products should be marked differently, Sojdrova said.
The issue was debated by an EU summit after the prime ministers of the Visegrad Four (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) drew attention to it.
