Slovak Dr. Oetker pizza is now just like the Austrian one

The producer has changed the formula of the Ristorante label following concerns over the dual quality of food products.

Pizza Ristorante Pizza Ristorante (Source: Sme - Gabriel Kuchta)

Pizza Ristorante from the Austrian food producer Dr. Oetker will no longer be sold in Slovakia at a different quality than in Austria or Germany. Beginning this year, the producer changed the formula of the Slovak version of its product. Now, it has a different weight, a bigger diameter and it also looks different. As recently as last October, the product included less mozzarella cheese and fewer tomatoes, the Sme daily wrote on February 25.

SkryťTurn off ads
Article continues after video advertisement
SkryťTurn off ads
Article continues after video advertisement

Read also: Dual-quality food should be added to list of unfair business practices Read more 

The consumer will have to pay more for the higher quality, though. In the autumn, the Tesco retail chain offered this pizza online for €2.45. Now, it costs €2.99.

SkryťTurn off ads

“Based on feedback, we decided to introduce the Dr.Oetker Pizza Ristorante deep-freeze pizza range in the same form as we know it in western Europe,” Zdeněk Kvinta, marketing manager of Dr. Oetker, told Sme.

Since February

The higher-quality product was offered to retail chains by the company at the beginning of February and since then, it has also appeared in individual shops. The reactions of consumers have not been assessed yet.

“We will only be able to evaluate how clients react after several months of selling the new product,” Billa spokesperson Kvetoslava Kirchnerová said for Sme. “We will communicate the change in formula to our clients via leaflets, calling it New Formula.”

Another step after the unification of the formula for western and eastern Europe has been the introduction of other pizza labels by Oetker, so far not sold in Slovakia: for example, the chocolate pizza, the Staggioni or the gluten-free pizza Ristorante.

SkryťTurn off ads

“They have gained huge popularity amongst our clients,” Tesco spokesperson Lucia Polačeková said, as quoted by Sme.

Read also: Europe will continue fighting dual quality products Read more 

Dr. Oetker is also starting a completely new label of pizza, of the same quality as Ristorante, called pizza Feliciana, CEO of Dr. Oetker for the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Jozef Debrecký, said for the Hospodárske Noviny daily.

The European Commission has exerted pressure on food companies to remove the dual quality of products and some other companies – e.g. Bahlsen bakery, producer of Clever mozzarella, and some others, have already done so.

Top stories

News digest: Rain causes flooding and driving difficulties in Bratislava. Slovakia under storm warning

A drunk driver gets a prison sentence, free events in Bratislava, and a corporate volunteering event returns.


8 h
Vrakuňa’s citizens presented apples washed in water with leaked toxins at the protest in 2016.

Chemical time bomb in Bratislava’s Vrakuňa keeps ticking

The state is failing to solve leaking chemical waste dump.


31. may
Jupiter (centre) and its Galilean moons: from left Ganymede, Io, Europa and Callisto. Juice with deployed antennas and arrays is in the bottom right.

From Košice to Ganymede: Slovak engineers are leaving their mark in space

Slovaks are active participants in two ongoing space missions.


20. may
The Supreme Administrative Court in Bratislava.

Q&A: How does the new justice reform affect people's lives?

The reform also known as the new map of courts became applicable on June 1 of this year.


6. jun
SkryťClose ad