2023 Author: Cody Thornton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-24 11:20
Things to forget at home for a holiday in Brussels: the ability to count calories, the sense of guilt. Craft beers, friterie for the best fried potatoes in the world, obviously the chocolate.
By the way, it doesn't seem extravagant to you that right in Belgium, the European country that more than any other safeguards the integrity of chocolate, the judges decide that a large supermarket can call with impunity " Choco "Your own Spreadable cream based on hazelnuts but without even a hint of chocolate?
With the aggravating circumstance that, as evident from the photo, the label, packaging and packaging evoke without fear of denial the Nutella.
Are you thinking of the umpteenth case of Italian Sounding, the set of tarot products that distort words, colors, images and brands of the profitable Made in Italy food (Parmesao, Regianito, Cambozola, Amaretto Venezia, Daniele Prosciutto …)?
How to blame you.
According to Federalimentare, 70 billion euros are stolen every year across the Italian industry and agricultural production.
Also in Belgium, the case of the fake "San Marzano" tomato allowed by the European Commission is striking because if grown outside the San Marzano Dop Pomodoro area of the Agro Sarnese-Nocerino it is not the prerogative of Italian producers.
Returning to "Choco", produced by the Belgian supermarket chain Delhaize, to defend Nutella the Italian Ferrero had denounced the dissonance between name, label and content, completely devoid of chocolate, asking the judges that the supermarket chain be given a fine between 1,250 and 100 thousand euros.
Battle lost: the Belgian judges did not accept Ferrero's thesis. According to them, Delhaize does not refer to chocolate as an ingredient in the spread, but uses it to indicate taste, flavor, and in any case the word choco is not regulated.
Ferrero's second complaint concerned a commercial in which Delhaize states that “Choco” contains 48% less fat than traditional creams as it is palm oil free. According to the Italian multinational, which makes extensive use of palm oil, this tendency to discredit Nutella foreshadowed the crime of unfair competition.
But Delhaize's claims were not deemed "false, ambiguous or misleading". Furthermore, "they do not arouse fear, they do not criticize the creams of competitors and they do not denigrate Nutella".
Belgian justice has run its course.