Empowering consumer organisations : the Dual Food Quality Conference
08 July 2021
The partners of the ECO-Empowering Consumer Organisations project were proud to present the achievements of their EU-project on Dual Food Quality during the final European Conference held online on the 29th of June from 10:00 to 13:00 CET. The conference provided a chance to both discuss the many aspects and findings of the project, but also gave a chance to various stakeholders affected by the issue of dual food quality to bring forward their views and expertise on the matter.
Consumers from a number of EU countries have complained that the composition of certain products, 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. The ECO- Empowering Consumer Organisations project was created in order to tackle this issue of dual food quality. Together with 3 partners from Italy, Romania and Belgium training materials were developed, enabling European consumer organisations to test product quality and identify potentially misleading branding strategies or information on the packaging.
This half-day online webinar, organised by Safe Food Advocacy Europe (SAFE), ADOC and InfoCons , included presentations providing an overview of the current legal situation of dual food quality as an issue in the EU. Other sessions showed practical examples on how different actors can perform testing on food products and how what the results of the test have been up until today. Finally, a panel discussion bringing together an MEP, an industry representative from Ferrero and a stakeholder representing consumer organisations from Movimento Consumatori allowed for an interesting exchange on the synergies and collaboration opportunities that could help in fostering an EU market with less misleading practices.
The conference speakers included policymakers, MEPs, EU Institution representatives, consumer organisations and representatives of the industry which provided a great opportunity for all these actors to discuss how to best tackle the issue and ensure products of equal quality to all European Consumers.
If you have missed the event or care to rewatch it, all recordings from the panel sessions are now live on SAFE’s Youtube channel. You can also find out more about tackling dual food quality and how to get involved on the ECO Project’s website.
