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As a quality oil, olive oil is susceptible to adulteration and fraud. This paper reviews the most common types of fraud in the olive oil sector. The two most common types of fraud recorded are the marketing of virgin olive oil as extra virgin, and marketing olive oil which is a blend of olive oil and  other vegetable oils. Two on-line surveys focused on current and future issues facing  the industry and control laboratories. These revealed the emerging issues of concern with regards to fraud were from the addition of deodorized oil, and from mixing with oil obtained by a second centrifugation of the olive paste (remolido). In addition, the most frequent fraudulent practices are mixing with lower quality olive oils, and giving a false delaration of origin (EU and non-EU). 

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Brazil’s Min­istry of Agri­cul­ture, Live­stock and Food Supply (MAPA) conducted an investigation over the past two years into the olive oil market, which revealed wide­spread mis­la­bell­ing in a country where olive oil con­sump­tion has risen sharply in recent years. MAPA ana­lysed 322,329 litres of olive oil sam­ples col­lected from 12 Brazil­ian states, and found 207,579 litres (64 per­cent) to be sub­stan­dard. The inspection team investigated 279 samples from 214 batches, and 38,7% of the batches were problematic most of which related to poor quality olive oil being sold as good quality. The high­est inci­dences of olive oil fraud occurred in those states with large num­bers of  bottling com­pa­nies, and fraud was rife among bot­tlers who import olive oil in bulk, mainly from Argentina.

Read the article here

In Italy, Bill Whitaker a reporter from CBS News in the USA finds out that the long arms of the Mafia extend to agricultural products, especially olive oil, on which the mob makes huge profits by exporting imitations.

Read full article and video interview at:  http://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minutes-agromafia-food-fraud/

After a disastrous olive harvest, prosecutors in Turin have launched a major commercial fraud investigation. Investigators have found 'major irregularities' in the quality of top olive oils. Extra virgin olive oil costs around £6 per litre compared to £3.45 normal oil. Producers face fines of £1,400 for each mis-sold bottle of extra virgin oil 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3314223/Top-Italian-brands-investigation-passing-ordinary-olive-oil-extra-virgin-disastrous-harvest.html#ixzz3rlDCg6Ty