BRATISLAVA, Slovakia — When Simona Budinska, a 31-year-old public relations specialist, had trouble finding lactose-free products at her local grocery, she and her husband began driving across the border to Austria, where the stores were teeming with choices.

But it was not the variety of products on the shelves as much as what was in them that stunned the couple. “The washing powder was just much more effective, and the ketchup contained more tomatoes than the Slovak one,” Ms. Budinska said.

The countries of Eastern and Central Europe have long bridled at being treated like the poor cousins of the European Union family. It does not help that even after more than a dozen years in the bloc, wages remain lower, corruption persists and public services, like schools and hospitals, are far scruffier.

But now that sense of resentment — of being treated as second-class citizens by more prosperous neighbors — is reaching even into the region’s refrigerators and cupboards. With rising passion, prominent politicians and local news media have taken up the issue of whether Eastern Europeans are being sold inferior products.