Adulterated Italian Oil

[Busboy]

Interesting piece in The New Yorker.

The investigators also discovered where Ribatti’s adulterated oil had gone: to some of the largest producers of Italian olive oil, among them Nestlé, Unilever, Bertolli, and Oleifici Fasanesi, who sold it to consumers as olive oil, and collected about twelve million dollars in E.U. subsidies intended to support the olive-oil industry.

“Profits were comparable to cocaine trafficking, with none of the risks”

[Pontormo]

I was wondering when and how and where someone would bring up that article.

Goes to show Mrs. B. is right to regret the draining of the French olive oil bottle.

[feedmec00kies]

Instead of supporting small growers who make distinctive, premium oils, the Italian government has consistently encouraged quan-tity over quality, to the benefit of large companies that sell bulk oil...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but some of the issues the article talked about sound awfully similar to the problems facing small-scale American farmers (vs. big agro-business) in light of the recent (last few decades) incarnations of the Farm Bill... Don't get me started on THAT one.

Fortunately, as far as I can tell there is no health risk from counterfeit olive oil, but it's certainly not nice to know that you could have potentially been swindled, and that there are honest folks who are suffering.

Thanks for posting that article, busboy! It was interesting to understand a little more about olive oil.

[SWISS_CHEF]

It just goes to show... a little oil, an extra virgin or two and someone is going to get screwed!

[hathor]

It just goes to show... a little oil, an extra virgin or two and someone is going to get screwed! 

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[rooftop1000]

Fortunately, as far as I can tell there is no health risk from counterfeit olive oil, but it's certainly not nice to know that you could have potentially been swindled, and that there are honest folks who are suffering.

Thanks for posting that article, busboy! It was interesting to understand a little more about olive oil.

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Unless you are allergic to tree nuts like hazel nuts

which I am not but.....

tracey

[Pontormo]

Rachael Ray: "Just say '---O'!"

[Raoul Duke]

Sure it's OK to adulterate foods. Start with olive oil, then on to salumi maybe a littele toothpaste or some dog food. If you don't give a s**t what's in your food, have at it.

[feedmec00kies]

oh yeah, rooftop1000, i totally forgot about allergies..

and maybe i am reading a certain tone into your reply that you didn't intend, raoul duke, but i didn't act like it was alright to adulterate food if it's "harmless". it's a terrible practice and it can potentially hurt or kill many people. the first thing that comes to mind about the dangers of adulterated food is the whole anti-freeze-in-wine thing that happened in the 1980s from wines coming from Europe..

[maggiethecat]

It's, let's face it, a scandal of major proportions. The article so sickened me that I might just have to stick to butter and canola -- or oil that proudly proclaims origin in Greece or Spain. I tell you, I felt as nasty- dirty reading this article as I do reading about about professional cycling.

Edited to add: My husband's family hails from Lucca. If anything, that makes it tawdrier. His great-grandfather is turning in his grave.

[divina]

even in Italy... there is no truth in labeling.

I avoid generic oils.

My husband talks of his dad who worked at the whole sale market in FLorence near one of the larges olive oil producers.. never saw a olive go in!!!

just trucks filled with oil!

From where???

[Sam Salmon]

Italian product has always been too thin and sour tasting for me-now I see why.

That being said if people can steal they will-Italians have no monopoly on crookery.

I stick to Greek EVOO-the Spanish I've tasted is fuller richer tasting than the Italian but not worth the asking price.

[SWISS_CHEF]

Italian product has always been too thin and sour tasting for me-now I see why.

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I don't think you have been trying the right oils... Italians make some of the finest olive oils in the world. This scandal mostly applies to cheap bulk grade stuff, not the handmade DOP oils. I buy one new artisanal oil every month and almost without exception they are divine.

It sounds like you like the full flavored oils so look for oils from Tuscany and further south. For lighter more perfumed oils look for Ligurian, Piedmont (yes they exist) and Lake Garda oils.

Don't give up, keep tasting!