Due to recent quality concerns, the Bulgarian government has announced plans to conduct quality checks on food products from multinational companies sold in the country. The food products will be compared to food products in Western European countries to ensure that they are the same. Eastern European countries are hoping to lobby the EU to stop global food companies from selling identical products that have differing ingredient lists based on what European country they are being sold in. Consumer groups have voiced concerns regarding the use of poorer-standard ingredients being used in food products in Central and Eastern Europe compared to Western European countries. The EU only requires that food packaging clearly list ingredients, not the quality of the ingredients. Rumen Porozhanov, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Foestry, stated that food products such as chocolate, dairy, meat, non-alcoholic drinks, juices and baby foods from Germany and Austria have already been purchased for the purpose of conducting quality checks by comparing them with to Bulgarian products. Mr. Porozhanov indicated that the quality checks will be conducted alongside the Visegrad Four, a consortium made up of Poland, Slovekia, Hungary and the Czech Republic, which has also already been vocal in its criticism of the same issue.
Source: Reuters