Some food products are identically or similarly branded while having a different composition, but no consistent geographic pattern has been found, as complained by EU member states from Central and Eastern Europe, the results of a pan-European testing campaign of food products showed on Monday.

“There is no consistent geographical pattern in the use of the same or similar packaging for products with different compositions. Moreover, the difference in the composition found in the products tested do not necessarily constitute a difference in product quality,” the Commission said.

“Some Europeans feel branded food products they buy are different, perhaps worse, compared to those available elsewhere. The Commission called on our scientists to help objectively assess the extent of such differences on the single market. The results are mixed: while I am happy that they found no evidence of an East-West divide in the composition of branded food products, I am worried that they uncovered up to one third of tested products having different compositions while being identically or similarly branded,” said Tibor Navracsics, Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, who is responsible for the Joint Research Centre.

The Joint Research Centre, the European Commission’s in-house science and knowledge service, analysed nearly 1,400 food products in 19 member states, including Croatia, using the same methodology to better understand the dual quality of food products in the EU.

The study shows that nine percent of the compared products differed in composition, although the front-of-pack was identical. A further 22 percent of products with a different composition had a similar front-of-pack. The study did not show a consistent geographical pattern. Based on the new methodology developed, national competent authorities will now be able to perform the case by case analysis required to determine misleading practices prohibited under EU consumer law.

Vera Jourova, Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality, said: “There will be no double standards in Europe’s single market. With the new laws penalising the dual quality and strengthening the hands of the consumer authorities, we have the tools at hand to put an end to this practice. European consumers will be able to do their shopping in full trust that they buy what they see.”

Although the study analysed 1,380 samples of 128 different food products from 19 member states, the sample is not representative of the vast diversity of food products on the EU market.

The member states that participated in the study were: Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain.