The hard-to-die prejudice about discount products
When you enter a discount store looking for Easter doves, it’s easy to give in to the idea that a low price necessarily implies lower quality. Yet, this belief – still widespread among consumers – increasingly clashes with a very different reality, in which behind a sober label and an affordable cost hides a producer with decades of experience behind him.
In the case of Eurospin, the brand dedicated to the holidays is called Duca Moscati, a line designed to accompany the sweetest moments of the year with a selection of products that the discounter presents as “greedy and refined”. But who actually makes these doves?
Behind the Duca Moscati dove there is Il Vecchio Forno
The classic colomba without candied fruit sold by Eurospin is produced by Il Vecchio Forno, a Vicenza confectionery company specialized in natural leavening, whose history has its roots in an Italy still marked by war.
It all began in the early 1940s, when the Facchin family’s bakery baked bread for the inhabitants of Castelgomberto, a small village in the province of Vicenza. The years of conflict forced the temporary closure of the business, but what survived – almost like an act of resistance – was the original sourdough starter, carefully guarded and kept alive throughout that period. It was precisely thanks to that choice that, at the end of the war, the bakery was able to reopen as an artisanal pastry shop, giving rise to a production that would soon include crostoli, pandoro, panettone and, of course, colombe.
In 1986 the transformation into a structured confectionery company marked the beginning of a phase of constant growth, culminating in 2015 with the acquisition of the Battistero brand. Today Il Vecchio Forno operates with two industrial sites and four production lines, positioning itself as a reference partner for the private labels of Italian and international large-scale retail trade.
What do the ingredients of the Colomba without candied fruit say?
Reading the label is always the most direct way to understand what you are really buying, and that of the Duca Moscati Colomba without candied fruit deserves careful analysis.
The base of the dough is built on wheat flour, sugar, butter and natural yeast – the latter simply composed of flour and water, confirming a leavening that follows traditional methods, far from the rapid chemical agents typical of more industrial productions. Fresh free-range egg yolks represent a detail that cannot be taken for granted: they indicate a choice of raw material that goes beyond the minimum necessary to keep the price low.
The icing, which makes up 10% of the product, is made with sugar, rice flour, sunflower oil, egg white powder and flavorings — an essential composition, without particularly critical elements. The almonds, present at 2%, and the granulated sugar at 6% complete the classic topping of the Colomba.
The ingredients also include emulsifiers (mono and diglycerides of fatty acids), common in industrial confectionery production and functional to the stability of the product over time, as well as skimmed milk powder and salt. Declared allergens include wheat, eggs and milk, while the product may contain traces of soy, other nuts and mustard.
Overall, it is an ingredient list without excesses: no palm oil, no endless list of additives, a structure quite close to that of an artisanal dove.
Same manufacturer does not always mean same product
It is important, however, not to fall into the opposite misunderstanding: knowing that a discount product comes from the same factory as a more well-known brand does not automatically mean that the two doves are identical. Companies that produce for large-scale distribution often work on different recipes and specifications depending on the client, calibrating the quantity of butter, the quality of the flour or the leavening time based on the agreed final price.
For this reason, the label remains the most honest tool available to the consumer: comparing the ingredients of two similar products, checking the percentages of the main raw materials and paying attention to certifications is always more useful than relying on the manufacturer’s name alone.
Is it worth buying?
The Duca Moscati colomba without candied fruit by Eurospin presents itself as a product with a decent ingredient profile, made by a company with a long tradition in natural leavening. For those looking for an accessible Easter dessert, without completely giving up a certain amount of care in the composition, it can represent a reasonable choice.
Those who wish to go further, however, still have the possibility of orienting themselves towards short-chain artisanal doves, products with certified fair trade cocoa or recipes prepared at home, where the quality of the raw materials is entirely in their hands. They cost more, sure — but behind that price there’s almost always a story worth supporting.
