European Food Forum

8. Dual quality: How we can solve the problem together!

The event will be held in webinar.

Start

November 9, 2020 - 11:00

End

November 9, 2020 - 13:00

The event will be held in webinar.

Registration for EFF Members only.

Event Description

Over the last few years, consumers from a number of EU countries have complained that the composition of certain products, such as soft drinks, coffee or fish fingers, is different in their home country when compared to products sold under the same brand and with the same or very similar packaging in other Member States. As a response to the growing concern over differences in composition of seemingly identical branded food products (so-called dual quality), the EU decided to tackle the issue by amending the Unfair Commercial Practice Directive. Member States are currently in the process of implementing this EU legislation and still there are conversations about the virtues of EU legislation and its pitfalls. In particular, there are hopes that implementation will shed further light on the level of packaging differentiation and labelling required to ensure consumers are well informed.

In the spirit of the European Food Forum’s mission to foster dialogue and debate on the issues that matter, the two hours debate will encourage an open sharing of perspectives from legislators to consumers, industry to academics all with an ability to deliver key insights on the issue at stake and what it takes to alleviate the concerns felt by some. For example you can expect the debate to answer some of the following questions and many more: does the legislation provide a definition of what constitutes quality? Is a difference in product composition automatically a difference in quality that would not be allowed? What does research tell us about the existence of different compositions between EU countries and is there an East / West divide? How do the institutions (EU and Member State level) and the industry respond to the results of last year’s EU wide comparison of quality related characteristics of food products? How do consumers feel about dual quality? What else would participants want the EU to do in relation to “Dual Quality”? Are there other misleading practices conditioning the consumers’ understanding and behavior with regard to food? What are the most prominent ones? And how by working together we could solve the problem of dual quality?

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