The River Of Adulterated Olive Oil Flows Unabated
This column is scheduled to run in the Capital Press in the Fall of 2006.A Capital Press reader recently contacted me, requesting that I discuss the profusion of adulterated olive oil that has found its way into the US ingredient and food service markets. Here follows a brief account of the adulteration problem.
In the US, it is illegal to mislabel olive oil or to sell another oil like soybean oil as olive oil. However, it is legal to blend olive oil with other seed oils provided that the resultant olive oil blend is clearly labeled as a blend and both the name of the component oils and the percentage used of those oils is clearly listed on the label. However, the enforcement of the laws regarding olive oil blending is spotty at best.
Relative to most other seed oils, like soybean oil, olive oil is very expensive. While soybean oil is generally traded around $2 per gallon, olive oil fluctuates in price between $9 and $18 per gallon depending on supply and demand. Since soybean oil is virtually odorless and tasteless it is easy to blend small amounts of it into olive oil without noticeably diminishing the flavor of the olive oil. Thus, when the price of olive oil is high so is the economic incentive to adulterate olive oil.
I was hired by a client in the fall of 2005 to investigate the sale of adulterated olive oil in certain markets in the US. As the price of genuine extra virgin olive oil on the global market rose, my client’s sales in certain markets fell. A few phone calls later, I determined that there were several brands of “extra virgin olive oil” that were being sold well below the market price and significantly below the replacement price for genuine extra virgin oil.
Laboratory tests provided us with clear and conclusive proof that the oil that was being sold as “extra virgin olive oil” was actually 90% soybean oil. Several distributors were informed that they were selling fraudulent oil and their reaction was a flippant “so what.” One of the distributors went so far as to explain that the product really was “imported from Italy,” as the label stated, because the cans actually came from Italy. When I explained to this distributor, that he was getting ripped off because he was paying $10 for $2 oil, he explained, “everybody’s doing it and I can’t keep the stuff in stock; we’re selling the hell out of it.”
The bottom line on the adulteration issue is that nobody will care about it until somebody dies from ingesting one of these fraudulent oils. The FDA criminal investigators told me this after we presented them with our evidence. Although there have been a few well-publicized busts recently, the river of adulterated oil still flows, especially through the food service channel and the ingredient market, at an alarming rate. In short, I would advise domestic producers not to hold their breath while waiting for the government to stop this widespread and very lucrative fraud from eroding the market for genuine extra virgin olive oil.
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posted by Brian J. Kenny @ 11:24 PM
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