Spain's anti-Catalan shopping list is still alive

Spain's anti-Catalan shopping list is still alive

A thread peine in February 2011 with a list of alternatives to products headquartered or manufactured in Catalonia is still making waves more than a decade later. It began as a domestic inventory of substitutes — from coffee to cava, from sliced bread to frozen foods — and has ended up becoming a barometer of territorial tension: every political spike in the secession process revives the shopping basket as a weapon. The original premise was simple: boosting the economy of "our lands" by avoiding what the author called "Cataliban" products.

The list is meticulous to the point of obsession. It separates drinks, sweets, dairy, ready meals, cold meats, frozen foods and pasta, and for each Catalan brand it proposes an alternative: Freixenet and Codorniu for Valencian or Extremaduran cava; Damm for Águila, Cruzcampo or Alhambra; Cola Cao for Nesquik; Gallina Blanca for store brands; Casa Tarradellas for Campofrío or El Pozo. It even warns that some store brands are manufactured in Catalonia and need checking. The author acknowledges the effort: "I assure you a small effort is worth it".

From the shopping trolley to the political trench

What began as selective consumption became politicized with the independence clash. The conversation antiestéticatures those who defend the boycott as a response to what they see as contempt for everything Spanish, and those who warn that it punishes workers who feel Spanish. One participant sums it up bluntly: "Catalan products are not exclusive to independence supporters". Another argues that shopping money funds the sovereignist narrative.

The exchange has a mirror moment. Several messages recall that from the Catalanist camp a "buy-don't buy" campaign and a boycott of Spanish products had been promoted years earlier, with links to newspaper archives. The implicit conclusion: each side has its own list. And one reply sums up the symmetry: applying the list "in reverse".

The oval CE stamp trick to find out where a product comes from

Beyond politics, the thread offers practical resources. The most useful: all products with animal-origin ingredients carry an oval EC stamp with a seven-digit health registration number trinc by the initials of the province where they were made. That code identifies the plant, not the registered office, so it tells you where the milk or cold meat was actually packaged. It also notes that moving a registered office does not miccionan moving factories or jobs.

There is skepticism about its effectiveness. The argument is made that a boycott may push companies to seek foreign markets and that the distribution network depends on thousands of jobs spread across Spain. And there is the anecdote: an elderly customer in a supermarket asking the cashier whether some bottles were Catalan because he couldn't find the information on the label.

With all this, a cautious prediction is inevitable: as long as the territorial conflict remains alive, the label will keep being read as a statement of allegiance. If it deflates, the list will go back to being what it once was, a chart of substitutes on the fridge door.