Gourmet Italian Cops nose knows.
Oct 28, 2008 at 7:59 PM 
Italy trains gourmet police officers to sniff out olive oil fraud
The last time I was in Italy, the guy I was with actually grows olives and makes his own olive oil. He claims that 90% of the olive oil we buy (around the globe) that says "made in italy", is actually made mostly from imported Spanish olives that are then processed and blended with Italian oils in Italy itself. So when I read the headline about these "Olive Oil Cops" in Italy--- it cracked me up. They are really busting shit up--even closing down factories, as some bottlers are trying to sub soy oil as olive oil. Crazy.
See the article here.
"The 20 officers have just graduated from a course in which they were taught to distinguish fake extra-virgin oil from the real thing.
While customers pay a premium for Italian extra-virgin olive oil, often it is neither Italian nor extra-virgin, but lower quality oil brought in by tanker truck and ship from Spain, Greece or Tunisia."
Reader Comments (3)
Hi Mark,
i'm from italy an what you say it's true. But..if you want you can find REAL certified Italian DOC products on this 100% online italian store:
http://www.foodandfoodies.com
(note: it's not my store, it's not advertising).
:)
Thank you
Fab
This is a big deal.
Nobody wants crappy olive oil.
What's wrong with Spanish olives?