https://www.nhh.no/en/research-centres/food/food-news/2017/s...
For Nutella specifically, there are also differences in composition between the more wealthy European nations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXp2MTWNoZ4 According to that report, the texture is different to accommodate for the differences in common bread types, which makes a lot of sense IMO.
With how little actual hazelnut goes into a jar of Nutella compared to palm oil and sugar that make up most of the spread, I doubt Ferrero is saving a lot of money selling inferior product to poorer countries. With expensive goods such as meat and "pretty" vegetables, there's more money to be made.
> Coca-Cola, whose drink in Slovenian stores was found by researchers there to contain more sugar and more syrup than that sold in Austria, responded by saying it adapted its recipe to local tastes.
In other words, Slovenia gets a better deal on Coca Cola but a worse deal on strawberry yogurt. Without more direct counter examples, that only seems to validate the claims made by manufacturers.
While there is plenty of proof that some companies are selling inferior products of their name-brand product in poorer countries, that doesn't mean a difference in taste automatically means it's part of some big conspiracy. Local preferences do actually differ and companies that don't account for that only stand to lose customers.
I think a combination of bad cocoa harvest and previously a bad hazelnut harvest have altered recipes globally to be more sugar and fat and even less cocoa and hazelnut, but it's hard to find any recent comparisons.
Maybe you have a link? I don't speak any languages from behind the Iron Curtain where the impact is probably the most obvious, so I would appreciate a good link.
For sweetness I find easterners prefer less sweetness.
In my circles such mutterings would be seem as populism and woowoo crap.