Elżbieta Bieńkowska, Commissioner for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, said:"All European consumers are entitled to a fair deal on the Single Market. The common methodology we developed together with Member States, consumer organisations and stakeholders from the food supply chain will help shed an evidence-based light on the different compositions of identically branded food products across Europe. Věra Jourová, Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality, added: “The Single Market cannot be a double standard market. All EU citizens must feel that they are treated in the same way and are offered fair and clear information on the products they buy. I encourage all national authorities to use it in the coming months, so that we can put an end to this practice.

Tibor Navracsics, Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sports, responsible for the Joint Research Centre, said: "European consumers have the right to be protected from misleading marketing about the food they eat. The Joint Research Centre has developed a harmonised procedure to evaluate perceived differences in the quality of products in an objective way. This is an excellent example of how first-class scientific work directly benefits citizens."The methodology will be presented today by the Joint Research Centre at a meeting of the High-Level Forum for a better functioning food supply chain. It complements the actions announced recently in the Commission's New Deal for Consumers initiative.

Under the coordination of the Joint Research Centre, laboratories across a number of EU Member States will now apply this methodology in a pan European testing campaign to collect data on the scope of the dual quality issue. First results should be available by the end of 2018.

A press release is available online.

Via europa.eu