Food scandal

It took several weeks for investigators to trace the fatal bacterial infections, which occurred in Austria and southern Germany last year, to the same food source. With the help of till receipts, they were eventually led to the Austrian firm, Prolactal, and to a range of cheese products sold by Lidl discount supermarkets.

In a statement released after the revelation, Lidl said it had reacted immediately by issuing nationwide recalls of the suspect products. On its website it urged customers to avoid eating them at all cost. But by that point, irreparable damage had already been done.

There is no way to turn back time, no way to undo things, but there are a lot of unanswered questions regarding food safety and the quality of discounter products. Is it really a case of getting what you pay for?

Martin Ruecker, spokesman with the consumer protection organization Foodwatch, told Deutsche Welle that when it comes to food, the simple answer is "no."

"Price is not an indication of quality," he said. "It is dictated by marketing costs, and it stands to reason that they will be higher for branded products than no-name goods."

Same system for one and all

Moreover, he said manufacturers, retailers and gastronomists in Germany are all subject to the same safety and hygiene regulations, no matter how big, small, cheap or expensive the establishment.

Yet while there is no obvious way for discounters to cut corners, Ruecker says German quality controls leave a lot to be desired. Not least the fact that they are all conducted anonymously.

"In Denmark, the results of hygiene tests are hung up in the window of the premises for customers to see, but we don't do anything like that here."

He says such practices would not only help to raise standards, but would also give the public the insight they deserve into the truth of what they consume.

"Take pesticides for example," Ruecker said. "We've seen cases where paprika has tested positive for high levels of pesticides, but where the product has not been taken off the shelf."

In such cases, it is not the retailer who is liable, but the famer, and the very nature of global agriculture makes it hard to locate and bring to account the culprits.

In search of transparency

That being the case, Ruecker believes the only real solution is transparency. If consumers were informed, say by a notice in the window or an online register, retailers who were not putting the interests of the public first would be exposed, and consumers would be free to make informed choices.

But Dr Edwin Ernst, consumer safety expert with the Baden-Wuerttemberg Ministry for Food and Agriculture, told Deutsche Welle it is not the only job of the authorities to regulate hygiene standards.

"Controls are only the tip of the iceberg," he said. "Companies have to come up with internal regulation concepts based on knowledge about the types of problems they might face and ways to deal with them."

Such concepts, he said, help inspectors see which businesses - manufacturers, importers or retailers - need to be closely watched and which require less monitoring.

And contrary to some public assumptions in light of the Lidl cheese scandal, Ernst says it is rarely the big retailers that score low points with hygiene and safety inspectors.

"You are more likely to find grubby conditions in a small business," he told Deutsche Welle. "Big companies have much more to lose, so they consequently expect higher standards from their suppliers."

Cheap shopping thrills

Certainly up until this week there was no evidence to suggest that German shoppers had anything but faith in the likes of Lidl and its no-frills domestic competitors. Collectively the five main discounters - Aldi, Lidl, Netto, Penny and Norma - have the lion's share of the country's retail food market, which is somewhat paradoxical given that the forecourts of said stores are often filled with big-name cars.

But as the saying goes, Germany is the only country in the world where you wear Armani for a trip to Aldi. Or, as Ruecker says, it is logical that consumers should want to get a good deal for their meals regardless of their disposable income.

"In the case of cars, you can see the difference between models and you know what you're getting for your money. But when you buy a liter of milk from Aldi or from a more expensive supermarket, there is no indication that one product is better than the other."

Author: Tamsin Walker
Editor: Sam Edmonds