EU: Dual quality of food: European Commission releases common testing methodology

The Joint Research Centre (JRC), the European Commission's Science and Knowledge service, has developed a common methodology to allow national consumer authorities to carry out tests comparing the composition and characteristics of food products sold with similar packaging across the Union.

The methodology complements the actions announced in the Commission's New Deal for Consumers initiative which aims to:

• clarify and strengthen consumer rights, including prohibiting dual quality practices which are misleading consumers;
• empower qualified entities to launch representative actions on behalf of consumers;
• introduce stronger sanctioning powers for Member States' consumer authorities.

Background

In response to the issue of dual quality of food reported by some EU Member States, the European Commission has taken several actions to ensure that consumers can trust the products they buy, regardless of where they live.

In addition to the methodology, other adopted measures include:

• a set of guidelines on the application of EU food and consumer laws to dual quality products (see press release)
• a proposal to amend the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (UCPD) under the New Deal for Consumers adopted by the Commission on 11 April 2018, to provide legal clarity when assessing potential dual quality cases.