Naydenov said he would ask the Commission and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) whether multinational companies were indeed selling food products of different quality in the EU's new member states, as alleged by recent research from Slovakia (see 'Background').
The minister said it would be "abnormal" for double standards on food products to exist within the EU and for differences in quality to indeed exist.
The statements came after Naydenov hosted a meeting with representatives of the companies cited in the Slovak research, which called the findings "speculative". But Naydenov indicated that he would seek arbitration on the case from the EU authorities.
If Bulgaria has indeed been treated as a second-class member state, Sofia could envisage legal action, the minister declared.
He also said that in-depth analysis of the products marketed in Bulgaria would be carried out, and that Bulgarian consumers had a right to know if there were differences in the quality of food products sold by the same brand in Western Europe and in Bulgaria.
For all these reasons, Naydenov said he was going to ask EU Health and Consumer Policy Commissioner John Dalli to take a position.
He announced that he was going to table the issue at the next Agriculture Council on 16-17 May, and that he had invited EFSA to visit Bulgaria in the course of May.
