Dozens of tonnes of fake olive oil have been confiscated in Puglia by the Italian carabinieri.
The authorities have seized a total 42 tonnes of faux extra virgin olive oil worth €900,000, equivalent to over £757,000, the carabinieri revealed this week.
Italy’s national gendarmerie has accused seven individuals of criminal conspiracy, adulteration of food substances intended for marketing, fraud in public military supplies and adulteration of food for export.
Some of the 42 tonnes of oil was already packaged for sale and the rest was ready for distribution.
Several boxes and warehouses used by the suspects were searched during the investigation, leading to the seizure of 71 tonnes of “oily substance” and 623 litres of chlorophyll, which is used to adulterate the oils.
Other equipment used in packaging and distribution was also seized, including 1,145 customs excise duty stamps that are being studied for forgery, and labels claiming the oil was “extra virgin”.
According to Filippo Berio UK CEO Walter Zanre, record prices for olive oil mean it is now even more lucrative to sell fake olive oil.
“But even in normal times, olive oil is one of the food products with the highest levels of adulteration, due to its very high price,” he said. “This adulteration ranges from the incident reported, i.e. fake oil being manufactured, to the adulteration of EVOO with deodorised oils.”
Using deodarised oils is still illegal, explained Zanre, but was “much harder to detect” than the manufacture of fake olive oil as in this most recent case.
Read more: Olive oil production estimates decrease again
“On social media, olive oil has always been subject to allegations regarding ‘fake’ oil,” added Zanre. “Unfortunately, as we are seeing an increase in this type of fraud, it gives credence to these claims, which can only damage our industry.”
The confiscation is the latest part of an investigation started in September 2023, co-ordinated by the Public Prosecutor’s Office at the Court of Foggia.
In November last year, 11 people were arrested and 260,000 litres of olive oil were seized near Ciudad Real by the Spanish Civil Guard, who had joined forced with the carabinieri.
Despite this rise in cases, Zanre reassured that “we don’t find adultered olive oil on UK supermarket shelves”.
“However what we do see is a lot of oil with flavour defects, which declasses it and so it should not be labelled/sold as extra virgin olive oil,” he added.
“At Filippo Berio we invest a lot of resources in testing all the oils we use to ensure they are not adulterated and comply with all legal requirements, both chemical and organoleptic,” he said. “However, at times we feel we are not on a level playing field as some bottlers are knowingly using oils that fail to meet the EVOO criteria.”
According to The Grocer’s Key Value Items Tracker, olive oil prices have increased by 37% year on year on average across the major multiples.
No comments yet