Inferiority Complex

Whenever Anne and Mark travel outside of Bulgaria, they bring certain items back upon their return.  Some of these items are not available at all in Bulgaria.  Like Hershey's chocolate syrup.  However, the majority of the items are brought back because they are of a higher quality than those available in Bulgaria.  For example, peanut butter is not very popular here, so the selection at the local outlets is always limited.  If we want Jif, Peter Pan, Skippy, Smuckers (yes, they make peanut butter, too), or any kind of organic or otherwise healthier than normal brand, we have to bring that back from the states.  Ok, no problem there.

But many products available in the U.S. and around the world are available here as well.  For example, Coca-Cola.  Coke is one of the most well-known brand names in the world, and we all know what a Coke tastes like.  Anywhere in the world at any time, a Coke is a Coke is a Coke.

Except in Bulgaria.

Apparently, the EU has found it to be no violation of any rule for companies to provide inferior products to certain countries.

The entire article is available here.  Basically, what is inferior about the products being supplied to Bulgaria?  As you can tell from the photo, they have pictures promoting Sex and the City 2, a clearly inferior movie.  So that's a problem.

The issue that the article chooses to focus upon, however, is the ingredients, rather than the packaging of the food products.  In particular, the article mentions a claim made by the Slovak Association of Consumers - who else would you trust on issues of product quality? - that Coca-Cola is using corn syrup in the ghetto (Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary) but using actual sugar in the upper class neighborhoods (Germany, Austria, Poland and the Czech Republic).

For a look at both sides of the argument over the pros and cons of corn syrup as a sweetener, you can look here for a link to an essay written by NY Times writer Michael Pollan and here for a message from the Corn Syrup Producers of America.

Which begs the question - which kind of sweetener does Coke use in the U.S.?  And regardless of which type it is, would we ever consider it to be "Discriminatory Use of Food, Drink Ingredients"?