O českých "blafech píše už i The Wall Street Journal!

O to, že se v různých evropských státech prodávají různé potraviny i když mají naprosto stejný obal a reklamu už se zajímá i WSJ. Tady je link  http://blogs.wsj.com/brussels/2012/02/02/top-brands-inconsistent-across-eu/# a tady celý článek:

Top Brands Inconsistent Across EU

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Have you ever gone on vacation and wondered why the refreshing cola-based soft drink you ordered by the pool tastes so different from the same thing bought in the supermarket at home? So have a group of European Parliamentarians, who have done the science and found out that the cookie really does crumble differently in France and Romania.

Global food brands are held up to certain standards by consumers, who expect a standard experience when they buy brand-name products. The 27-nation European Union is, in theory at least, a single market. MEPs Olga Sehnalová and Elena Antonescu organized an event Wednesday to show that the market is far from unified.

“Is it acceptable that products protected by trademarks and marketed under trademarks can have different ingredients in different countries, which naturally entails differences in quality?,” Ms Sehnalova recently asked the European Commission, which replied that as long as food is safe, it’s fine for it to appeal to the different palates across the continent. But a scientific investigation shows there might be more to it than that.

“What seems to happen is better products get sent to “better” countries, and whatever’s at the bottom of the barrel gets sent to Bulgaria,” Miloš Lauko, Chairman of the Slovak consumers’ association said at a talk in the parliament when discussing one well-known brand of pepper. “There should be no crumbles or ground pepper, just whole seeds in the packet!”

You can see the results of the survey – and improve your Slovak — here, by seeing their comparison of Coca Cola, Milka chocolate, black and red pepper from Kotanyi, and three kinds of coffee: Nescafé Gold, Jacobs Kronung and Tchibo Espresso coffee. They bought the products in Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria before subjecting them to processes including “sensory benchmarking,” which sounds like a very scientific name for “chowing down.”

For example, taking cans of Coca-Cola from each country to the lab showed that while the basis for the Coke syrup is the same, different sugars were used everywhere, including cheaper isoglucose in Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria.

Outside the conferece room, concerned journalists (and hungry MEP assistants) could sample French strawberry Danone Activia yoghurt, which was more creamy with a satisfyingly natural tartness, while Czech strawberry Danone Activia yoghurt was altogether sweeter, with an almost-jam like finish and what looked like considerably more strawberries in it. Laughing Cow cream cheese was different as well, although your correspondent was so busy having a Proustian journey back to childhood visits to the Normandy coast in the mid 1980s while eating it, it’s hard to go into specifics.

While consumers can buy locally-produced products which reflect the tastes of the region, “if I want to buy a global brand, it should taste the same everywhere,” Ms Sehnalova’s assistant Iva Ladzianska explained while handing out samples of Milka chocolate, which displays admirable consistency. “Companies say it reflects taste, but why should it be more expensive for ‘worse’ products?”