Romania follows the model of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary and will look into the quality of imported food sold by local retailers to check if it is the same quality as the food sold in supermarkets and hypermarkets on Western European markets.

A work group made of representatives from the Agriculture Ministry, the National Sanitary-Veterinary and Food Safety Authority (ANSVSA), the National Consumer Protection Agency (ANPC) will start looking into this possible double standard, agriculture minister Petre Daea announced on Friday.

Officials from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary have already started investigating a possible double standard in imported products made in Western Europe and sold in these markets. The preliminary findings indicate that the products sold on these Eastern European markets by international retailers may not be the same quality as those sold under the same brands in Western markets such as Germany or Austria.

The Czech deputy agriculture minister Jiri Sir says his country has already started a broader study and will present its findings to the other countries in the Visegrad Plus group, which also includes Romania, Slovenia, and Bulgaria.

Hungary recently announced that some products sold in its supermarkets were lower-quality that the same products sold in Austrian supermarkets.

editor@romania-insider.com