Been following this olive oil thing for a while now and honestly I’m getting more frustrated the deeper I go. Back in 1999 the CFIA tested 100 oils and found 20% were fake. That was over 25 years ago. You’d think things would’ve gotten better right? Nope. Last year they tested 92 samples and found 24% were either adulterated or falsely labelled. We’re going backwards.
Here’s what gets me though. This isn’t some small time operation. We’re talking major brands on every grocery store shelf. Italy only produces 15% of the world’s olive oil but they’re the second biggest exporter. The math doesn’t math. Spain makes 45% of global supply at 60% cheaper prices but somehow Italian bottles are everywhere charging premium. And the thing is everyone knows. The industry knows. Regulators know. The mafia’s been documented running these operations for decades with profit margins comparable to cocaine trafficking according to EU investigators. In 2008 they literally arrested 23 people and seized 85 farms in Operation Golden Oil. 260,000 liters of adulterated oil was seized in 2023 alone. But here we are still buying bottles that say “Product of Italy” in big letters on the front and then in tiny print on the back it’s actually from Tunisia, Spain, Greece, Argentina mixed together and bottled in the US.
The FDA doesn’t rigorously test imports because supposedly it’s not a safety issue. The IOC sets standards but they’re not enforceable. The NAOOA which includes all the major brands actively resists tighter regulations. And consumers just keep buying whatever’s on sale because most people can’t even taste the difference between real EVOO and refined seed oil with some chlorophyll added.
I get it, real olive oil is expensive to produce. Takes 5kg of olives to make 1 liter. Early harvest costs more. Small farms can’t compete with industrial scale. But that doesn’t make it okay to just accept a system where 70-80% of what’s labelled extra virgin doesn’t actually meet the standards.
We’re paying for medicine and getting vegetable oil. We’re buying for health benefits that aren’t there because the polyphenols have degraded or were never there to begin with. And somehow we’ve all just collectively decided this is fine?
I don’t get it. Why isn’t there more outrage about this? Why do people get more worked up about their coffee than about being systematically defrauded every time they go to the grocery store? Is it just me or does anyone else think this is completely insane?