Rising prices for olive oil have led to large-scale counterfeiting of “liquid gold”

The price of olive oil is rising every day, so falsification is becoming increasingly common as various scammers seek to make even greater profits. Nowadays olive oil has literally turned into “liquid gold”.

Detecting falsification is very difficult, but it has reached alarming proportions. The government is solely responsible for the soaring prices of olive oil, because last year it allowed olive oil producers to sell supplies abroad from what was generally acknowledged to be a very successful year.

This year, when the olive harvest turned out to be unprecedentedly low, prices soared several times. Everyone knows that the law of supply and demand is inexorable. High demand and low supply means high prices during an already prohibitively high season.

Panagiotis Katsaris, agronomist and biotechnologist from ELGO “Demetra”, speaking on one of the TV shows, said that “Olive oil is one of the most difficult products to test because it can easily be mixed with other oils and sold as extra virgin.” He further clarified that the color of olive oil should not be taken as an indicative criterion for whether it has been processed or not.

In addition, Katsaris said that if olive oil is mixed with 10% sunflower oil, then it is impossible to detect the falsification either by taste or smell, but only through chemical analysis. In conclusion, he noted that “Olive oil is the only fatty substance that contains polyphenols, so a simple method to determine whether it is extra virgin olive oil is to test for them.” And for this you need appropriate and expensive equipment.

EFET President, Professor Antonis Zampelas of the Agricultural University of Athens, noted on Monday (20/11) that “Olive oil is usually counterfeited by scammers who mix it with cheaper vegetable oils, selling it as extra virgin to make a much larger profit.

Sometimes, since seed oils have a different color, more yellowish than olive oil, they may even add a little coloring to them to further deceive the consumer and get “the true color of olive oil”“. He further said: “For several days now we have also been issuing a press release to EFET, where we mention what the consumer should pay attention to and what companies supplying the oil should pay attention to.

The press release posted on our website states that you should generally buy standardized because bulk carries a greater risk of being adulterated. Moreover, they should buy standardized products from companies that are reputable. Points of sale must be known and have a special code that indicates starting with EL, and a number indicating that one way or another the process is legal.

Businesses, restaurants, taverns, etc. that also buy olive oil to use in the cooking process must be very careful about where and what they buy. If anyone wants, he can give a sample of the olive oil he purchased for quality testing to our laboratories, we have also posted a number where you can contact us – 11717. In addition, someone can file a complaint on our website, we have a special form and we can investigate it.”

Source link