
Most olive oils sold in the United States are adulterated or deceptively labeled - walterbell
http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2016/08/olive-oil-fake-larry-olmsted-food-fraud-usda
======
markpapadakis
I live in Crete, Greece. Almost all families here own olive trees groves and
produce oil - the island, and I guess this is true for most regions of Greece,
is full of olive trees. We consume a lot of oil - we use oil in everything,
and it’s delicious - I personally have a hard time eating anything that
doesn’t have olive oil in it.

I ‘ve tasted olive oil when I had the chance to travel to other countries,
except it barely resembled the olive oil I know. It tasted bad, and it didn’t
even look like the real thing. This could have only been fake or otherwise
diluted olive oil. I doubt any kind of olive tree produces that kind of oil
anyway.

By the way, I noticed from my time in some European cities, that olive oil is
sold for a very high price. I understand that imported goods are expensive,
but the prices I saw at super markets were just ridiculous ( and it’s possible
even that was for ‘fake’ olive oil).

~~~
SinomaSo
Same in morocco. We have 3 olive trees in our house and we get huge amount of
olive oil out of them. We use olive oil in everything. I also agree with you
about the taste. It tastes insanely good compared to what I buy from
supermarkets in Europe. I've heard rumors in the past that the Mafia got
involved in olive oil in Italy because it's much more lucrative and safe than
drugs.

~~~
cloudjacker
The conspiring Mafia.... lobby.

Contact your senator now

------
dewitt
After learning a few years ago about the large-scale fraud involved in the
export olive oil industry, I started trying domestic olive oil instead (I'm in
the US).

My favorite domestic oil, which is available everywhere now, is California
Olive Ranch (e.g, [http://amzn.com/B005CT8R90](http://amzn.com/B005CT8R90)).
It's _delicious_. Tastes nothing like the horrible oils I had been unknowingly
eating for years, and there's no way I could ever go back.

~~~
themartorana
Thanks for this. We use a lot of olive oil in our family and I've read plenty
on these abuses, but the articles never call out brands. 69% of all EVOO off
the shelf in the US doesn't pass muster? _Tell me which 31% did!_ And for
crying out loud, shame the shit out of the ones that failed.

In any case, gonna buy some of this now. Cheers!

~~~
alvarosm
They don't name names because it's probably scaremongering propaganda.
Somebody wants to boost local oil consumption or other oils (other than olive)
or something

~~~
azinman2
If you don't name what you want people to get instead, how could this even be
true?

Mother jones has great reporting in general -- they're not an outfit that is a
corporate ad extension.

~~~
downandout
_> Mother jones has great reporting in general -- they're not an outfit that
is a corporate ad extension. _

I'm sorry but are you kidding? Upon visiting this page I was presented with
this ad that had no dismiss button:
[http://prntscr.com/c5bb9h](http://prntscr.com/c5bb9h)

If you were a raging liberal, then I suppose you'd consider Mother Jones and
its insistence on giving your email to the "Progressive Turnout Project"
before reading their content to be "great reporting" (by the way, Mother Jones
was _paid_ for this - does that not qualify as a "corporate ad extension"?).
But personally, I can't stand political propaganda sites that masquerade as
journalism, and I especially can't stand any site that requires me to give my
email to third parties before I can read their content. That's a nonstarter.

~~~
solipsism
No such thing as a journalistic organization without a platform. You're not
surprising anyone. You should instead spend time showing that they're biased
instead of just announcing this. Having a stance doesn't preclude good,
unbiased journalism.

------
vanderZwan
I wish "Keuringsdienst van Waarde" would put its episodes online, with
subtitles. They had one specifically about olive oil.

Here is a section where they speak English with Italian producers about the
difference in Extra Vierge, Vierge, Pure and Lamp olive oil:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkO1dwx2_KA&t=10m](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkO1dwx2_KA&t=10m)

My favourite part is when they visit the Italian oil tasters, which test for
Olive Oil fraud by tasting it:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkO1dwx2_KA&t=13m45s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkO1dwx2_KA&t=13m45s)

Later on, they test oil they brought with them from the Netherlands, which is
hilarous:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkO1dwx2_KA&t=16m](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkO1dwx2_KA&t=16m)

> (after one sniff) _" This oil is very particular... It is_ Spanish _Olive
> oil! "_

> _" But that's not a defect is it?"_

> _" Yes it is!"_

> _" Because it's Spanish? That's not a.."_

> _" YES! YES IT IS!"_

TL;DW: Supposedly "Italian" brands with extra vierge olive oil is in reality
run by a Spanish company who makes processed olive oil grown in Spain and
Tunesia. Also, Italians being wondefully stereotypical food snobs.

------
MicroBerto
This is a similar issue we had in the protein powder industry with amino acid
spiking.[1]

TL;DR is that companies were putting cheap filler aminos like taurine and
glycine into protein powders, which would pass as nitrogen on a "protein"
test, but they were far cheaper and less effective than actual whey protein.

A lot of times the companies would _think_ they were getting legit raw
materials, but if they didn't test their incoming raws (illegal per cGMP),
they could easily get screwed by the cheap crap coming in from China.

It's expensive to test for ($2000 for a full amino panel), but once the bad
guys started getting discovered, the class action lawsuits hit hard. One
multi-million dollar settlement's already been public.

Olive oil companies are wise not to get caught doing this, especially the
bigger ones with deep pockets (a class-action lawyer's dream). Always test
your incoming and outgoing product. If you blindly trust that overseas
manufacturer's lab tests, get ready to get destroyed.

[1] [https://blog.priceplow.com/protein-scam-amino-acid-
spiking](https://blog.priceplow.com/protein-scam-amino-acid-spiking)

~~~
ap22213
I had always assumed that protein powder was derived from waste products that
were created during other food processing. Why would someone use protein
powder when there are other good sources of protein?

~~~
MicroBerto
Back in the day, they used to throw the whey out. It was the curds they wanted
for cheese.

Times have definitely changed. Whey is in everywhere, even in oreos. Demand
got out of control cerca 2012, which led to all the spiking.

One of the major instant shockwaves to the market was the launch of Gatorade
Recovery drinks. And that was on top of the general movement towards high-
protein diets (a good thing). Took the market quite a while to recover from
that, pardon the pun.

Regarding your question... if you have a high-protein diet, it's a nice
convenience to throw a scoop or two in. You ever try to get 225-250g protein
per day without using shakes, day in and day out? Gets tiring.

~~~
semi-extrinsic
Here in Norway, we've never thrown away the whey. It's been used for centuries
to produce "brown cheese", a delicious sweet semi-soft "cheese". Wonderful on
waffles. It's the first thing ex-pat Norwegians ask you to send them.

------
dmatthewson
Here's the Davis study with the specific brand names and what specific
chemical or taste tests they failed.

[http://olivecenter.ucdavis.edu/research/files/oliveoilfinal0...](http://olivecenter.ucdavis.edu/research/files/oliveoilfinal071410updated.pdf)

Glad to see the cheap WalMart generic oil I buy was one of the few that
passed. Interesting to see so many of the high end brands were fakes.

~~~
bgentry
Anybody have a mirror of this PDF? Site is down.

~~~
jrnichols
sort of off topic: but i remember the days where pretty much anything ending
in .edu was what you hit because you knew that it would be up. Especially UC
Davis. Those days are over. :/

and on topic: I think it's great that the "Great Value" brand that many people
turn their noses up at turned out to be one of the few that passed the UC
Davis tests.

~~~
teej
I mean, the way WalMart manages their supply chain, there's no guarantee it
will continue to pass. If I remember correctly, Great Value Parmesan cheese
was rated the worst (highest) level of wood pulp additives when tested vs
other major brands.

~~~
dmatthewson
> If I remember correctly, Great Value Parmesan cheese was rated the worst
> (highest) level of wood pulp additives when tested vs other major brands.

I buy that brand too and recommend it. The label clearly lists cellulose among
the ingredients and it has a legitimate function as a decaking agent. At 7.8%,
it did not have the highest cellulose level in that study, though it was
close. I've bought grated parmesan with low levels of cellulose, and some of
it's more clumpy. However, it seems the 4% brands have the right mix.
WalMart's doubling that does seem to be working as a cheap filler. The cheese
in it is actually parmesan though. Much more interesting in that study though
was that some brands such as Market Pantry, Always Save, and Best Choice all
contained _absolutely no parmesan cheese at all_.

Buying a brick of hard parmesan and grating it oneself is by far the best way
to go, but cheap bottled stuff that isn't too bad is more convenient for kids
to work with.

------
kinofcain
One thing that is not commonly mentioned is that olive oil freezes very well.

I typically buy a large 5-liter tin can of olio nuovo in the fall from a known
producer and then freeze all but one liter of it in mason jars, unfreezing
throughout the year as needed.

It works really well.

EDIT: It's mentioned in passing in the article but there's only one olive
harvest per year (per hemisphere), so there's an advantage to buying all your
oil for the year immediately after harvest if you think you can store it
better than the store/wholesaler, which is the point of throwing it in the
freezer.

~~~
nextos
Related to freezing, I have a very good heuristic to detect fake oils.

Since olive oil contains quite a lot of monounsaturated fats, and these become
solid with a bit of cold, putting olive oil in the fridge for 12 hours should
make solid.

I imagine it yields some false positives and negatives, but my own olive oil
never fails to become solid, even at room temperature during cold winter days.
Nor my neighbour's, or some niche brands I trust. Whereas commercial ones tend
to fail...

~~~
vixen99
Be great if it was true but seems that this freeze test is a myth. One report
for instance: North American Olive Oil Association called the home test
“completely false and misleading.”

------
Jugurtha
We don't buy olive oil, fortunately. I live on the Mediterranean and my mother
produces it.

Olive oil is about 7x more expensive than regular/industrial/cooking oil, but
even on the Mediterranean, there's massive fraud. People are always looking
for _reliable_ and _trusted_ sources to buy their olive oil. They also won't
shy away from asking you to give them some if they know you have an olive
grove or something. It's something I didn't understand until recently because
good quality olive oil was always available and I took it for granted to just
pour it (we use quite a lot of it. And no, I'm not overweight).

People who have small groves will produce for their own consumption and that
of their close relatives and friends. They _might_ sell some but it's not for
the money, and they do so with reluctance buyers don't understand.

From the buyer's perspective: I'm paying you 7x what cooking oil costs!

From the seller's perspective: For the effort that goes into it? I'd rather
eat it or give it for free. It's not something to make money off of.

The supplier will sell it because they're embarrassed to say no to that person
and that person has refused to take it for free. So they pay and think the
supplier is happy. When they come for more, they'll probably hear that the
supplier has no olive oil left even if it's a lie because even at that price,
in their mind they gave it for free (it's precious that way).

Olives are great. You can also use the solid byproducts of the pressing
process as combustible. It makes a great fire. The process also produces a
dark substance that is heavier than oil and has a _divine_ taste with salt and
bread.

~~~
venomsnake
> You can also use the solid byproducts of the pressing process as
> combustible. It makes a great fire.

I would guess it will also make terrific feed for animals.

~~~
Jugurtha
I don't know about that. Animals have what to eat (grass, etc. Here's the
place: [http://bit.ly/2bf0f9p](http://bit.ly/2bf0f9p)). It's as hard as a
rock, comes as little pellets, and burns beautifully. I spent hours and hours
as a kid just sitting next to a fire and adding those babies.

It's amazing how the combustible you use can dramatically affect your fire. I
went to the desert for a friend's wedding, they used a type of local wood (it
had a name that people of another place use as a generic term for "wood"). The
fire looked like it was filmed in slow motion and smelled sweet. They'd then
take the embers somewhere on the sand and make a discus, put a type of local
bread filled with hot pepper, onions, etc. on the embers, cover the hole with
another layer of embers, and then add sand and let it cook like that. You'd
see the thing get bigger as it cooked.

It was one of the most delicious things I've ever tasted in my life. It opens
your appetite like crazy, as does the arid climate (very dry). Arid climates
are also amazing, you don't seem to get tired when you stay in those places as
opposed to the North where humidity can get the best of you.

------
Stratoscope
_Extra Virginity_ by Tom Mueller is a fun and informative book on olive oil.
He also runs a website called Truth in Olive Oil:

[http://www.truthinoliveoil.com/](http://www.truthinoliveoil.com/)

His page on supermarket olive oils has been really helpful for me - I haven't
gone wrong with any of his picks. In particular I've liked the California
Olive Ranch, Kirkland Signature Extra Virgin Toscano, and Trader Joe's Premium
100% Greek Kalamata.

Another Greek oil we picked up at random at Rockridge Market Hall in Oakland:
Terra Creta Early Harvest (November 2015). A bit more expensive than the ones
above, but very tasty!

------
ghshephard
You would think that if this is the case, that there would be a marketing
opportunity for either a retail chain, or a brand that kept strong control
over distribution, to market Olive Oil that was genuine, rather than
faked/adulterated crud.

Kind of sad to know when I go into the store, and see twenty-thirty different
brands of all sorts of quality (and prices) of Olive Oil - that most of it is
fake.

~~~
hiou
But if you start marketing one brand as the real one now you introduce doubt
into the other higher margin olive oils. A store could end up instead
increasing the purchase of lower margin oils like canola at the expense of
their current possibly fake olive oils. Remember in market economies the
initial advantage goes to the faker.

------
Houshalter
Here's another article on it with a less extreme headline:
[http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/most-of-us-are-
blissfull...](http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/most-of-us-are-blissfully-
ignorant-about-how-much-rancid-olive-oil-we-use/)

They say that most olive oil isn't "fake", just lower quality than labelled.
However in taste tests, American consumers can't distinguish the higher
quality oil, and actually prefer the lower quality stuff.

>Rancidity, for example, isn’t generally a sought after quality in edible
products. And yet, when it comes to olive oil in the U.S., people like it.
Why? Partly, because rancid olive oil is less bitter than the good stuff. But
also, likely because it’s what many of us know and grew up with. It’s what we
think olive oil is supposed to taste like

Of course fraudulent labelling is wrong. But if consumers actually prefer it,
then it doesn't seem so bad.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
Rancidity, vomit flavour people sometimes call it, is seemingly a key flavour
in USA chocolate. I wonder if there's a parallel reason or if the 'gone off'
flavour of chocolate -- that was initially down to poor milk transportation --
has influenced the local palette wrt other foods.

~~~
Stratoscope
It's not rancidity, it's butyric acid, the source of "the Hershey flavor":

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7275566](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7275566)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hershey_bar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hershey_bar)

~~~
pbhjpbhj
I heard about it first at a lecture by an industrial chemist working for
Cadbury. He explained it as being a hangover from milk going off during
delivery. Colloquially at least off milk is said to have gone rancid. There
were samples ... a memorable experience!

The addition of butyric acid of supposed to mimic the past flavour without the
use of off milk.

------
dorfsmay
Buy Costco's Kirkland:

[http://www.lifeinitaly.com/best-olive-oil-
us](http://www.lifeinitaly.com/best-olive-oil-us)

~~~
Stratoscope
Costco has several different olive oils of varying quality. The one to get,
when they have it, is the excellent Kirkland Signature Toscano. (It's the one
mentioned in the page you linked.)

------
BaronSamedi
Where is the FDA on this one? The problem should be solvable by bans. FDA does
random sampling, if your product is found to be adulterated, then you are
banned from importing into the US for 5 years.

~~~
sowbug
Sybil attack to the rescue.

------
0xmohit
Come over to India. Forget olive oil (where motivation to fake is higher given
the higher price), even cheaper oils like mustard oil are almost certainly
fake.

~~~
Noseshine
Try Russia:

[https://themoscowtimes.com/articles/warning-this-is-not-
chee...](https://themoscowtimes.com/articles/warning-this-is-not-cheese-in-
russia-watch-what-you-eat-54689)

    
    
        > If you live in Russia, you may already be worried about what you’re eating.
        > If you’re not worried, maybe you should be.
    
        > Watchdogs say dairy producers routinely added starch, chalk and soap to their
        > milk. One-fifth of caviar brands contained bacteria linked to E. coli. Bread
        > bakers were discovered to use “fifth-grade” wheat, the sort usually intended for
        > cattle. More than half the sliced salmon on shop shelves has been judged unsafe.
        > And those are only the most recent revelations.

~~~
0xmohit
Oh, well. Here are some:

[http://www.treehugger.com/green-food/indias-farmers-
injectin...](http://www.treehugger.com/green-food/indias-farmers-injecting-
veggies-with-love-hormone.html) (use of Oxytocin)

[http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/70-of-milk-in-
Delhi...](http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/70-of-milk-in-Delhi-
country-is-adulterated/articleshow/11429910.cms) (adulterated milk)

[http://www.sadgurupublications.com/ContentPaper/2013/3_168_3...](http://www.sadgurupublications.com/ContentPaper/2013/3_168_3\(3\)2013_SRCC.pdf)
(adulterated fuel)

------
teolemon
Help us document all the olive oils sold worldwide by taking photos of the
packaging. It won't solve the whole problem stated by the article, but it's a
good start.
[http://android.openfoodfacts.org](http://android.openfoodfacts.org) or
[http://ios.openfoodfacts.org](http://ios.openfoodfacts.org)

[http://world.openfoodfacts.org/category/olive-
oils](http://world.openfoodfacts.org/category/olive-oils)

~~~
mandelbulb
Rather, regarding the issue of chemical quality that information doesn't help
at all.

You need proper chemical testing and a proper definition of the quality of
taste.

There are already a lot of tested brands so you could add a section to collect
that data, although it's usually behind paywalls.

------
justinator
Demand of olive oil probably outstrips the capacity of the world to produce
it.

Does this work for other resources? Is there enough raw materials to make
batteries, to replace a billion cars?

~~~
coldtea
> _Demand of olive oil probably outstrips the capacity of the world to produce
> it._

Only if we assume price is fixed. Because by merely raising the price (which
you can, when there's demand) you get to manipulate the capacity needed.

~~~
mikro2nd
Except that it takes at least five years from planting an olive tree to where
you get any kind of harvest (and longer before you get a "commercially viable"
harvest.) So there's a significant lag in there that you might want to
consider - it's not like manufacturing shoes or something.

~~~
JshWright
If production were at a hard cap, the price would rise until demand fell off
to a point that the supply could meet it.

------
PanosJee
Buy Arogos at Wholefood. I grew up in Sparta, Greece and my family owned
several olive trees. Arogos products are exactly what I remember from our own
produce.

------
unfocused
I'm not an expert but just from taste, most supermarket extra virgin olive
oils are not real or perhaps diluted or mixed.

My family produces some and consume it ourselves or give to friends/family for
free. The real stuff has such a amazing taste that after trying one
supermarket brand after the other, you start realizing there is no way what
you are buying is the real stuff.

I have no scientific evidence...just my simple taste buds. Anyone who has
consumed real olive can probably relate.

------
mc32
Not too far from the SF Bay Area is SLO and Paso Robles (~3hrs). There are
presses there. You can buy from the farmers and local markets which sell their
oils. They have Spanish and Italian varietals. Should be pretty authentic
olive oil --I guess they could cut it with grape oil?

They've even got Olive oil tasting events:
[https://centralcoastwinecomp.com/olive-
oil/](https://centralcoastwinecomp.com/olive-oil/)

~~~
djrogers
You don't have to go that far - there are groves popping up in Napa and
Livermore too. The local (Livermore in my case) olive oil I've had fresh off
the presses here tastes amazing, it truly woke me up to the degree that we've
been mislead.

It made me wonder just how many americans have ever actually tasted real olive
oil - because once you have, the fake stuff is immediately obvious.

~~~
bhangi
My favorite olive oil anecdote. Last year, I was traveling from Venice to
Paris on an overnight train and I'd brought along a bottle of wine to share
with my cabin-mates. One of them reciprocated by bringing out a can of olive
oil that had "just been extracted last week" from his farm in Tuscany. We
sampled that oil with a piece of bread torn from his sandwich -- our olive oil
purveyor was probably not expecting to conduct a tasting in an overnight
train. Would it be politically incorrect to exclaim: mamma mia? :-)

All I can say is that you are right -- it is impossible to taste real olive
oil and not know the difference between it and the supermarket stuff.

------
raphinou
Am i naive to think we're better off in Europe?

~~~
ddebernardy
Probably not. There's still fraud, mind you, e.g.:

[http://www.laprovence.com/article/papier/4052849/des-
olives-...](http://www.laprovence.com/article/papier/4052849/des-olives-
despagne-cachees-dans-lhuile-provencale.html)

But we've stricter controls in place (because of Appellation-related laws) and
offenders get fined or jailed.

~~~
wott
Though that's a fraud on the origin of the olives, not on the quality of the
olives or oil (quality of the oil made of olives of fraudulent origin may have
in fact been higher than the usual one :-) ).

------
hourislate
Was in Costco the other day and was looking at the Oils. If you look at a
bottle of Bertolli and read the label, it says Olive Oil Flavor. Costco
carries the Kirkland Brand that's average. They also have a brand from Tunisia
I think (has a yellow label) that is pretty good.

Most Italian Olive Oil for export is from Greek Olives. The Greeks export a
lot of Olives because they can't process it themselves. Most Italian Olives go
for domestic consumption I would imagine.

California from what I understand has some great Olive Oil. Might be a little
pricey.

Balancing cost and quality is the problem with most consumers.

~~~
HorizonXP
We buy that Tunisian olive oil too, it's definitely pretty good.

Someone above recommended a California brand that I'm going to try.

Personally, I'd like to have two types of olive oil in my house:

1) Cooking olive oil. Usually use "cheap" EVOO for this, but technically, it
doesn't have to be that high-grade since it's being heated. 2) Good quality
EVOO for salads, or eating on its own. That way, you actually maintain the
flavour and health benefits.

------
jdavis703
I'm surprised they didn't mention making your own olive oil as a way to be
sure it's authentic. I assume if you have access to fresh olives it shouldn't
be too hard?

~~~
Retric
It takes a press and ~10-15 lb of olives to make a liter of olive oil. If your
buying them retail that could easily run 100$. I don't know if you consider
that reasonable, but unless you have olive trees I would just pay a premium
and buy local from somewhere you trust.

However, if your going to do this kind of thing making grape juice is a
similar process and much easier. It also produces something that's almost
completely different than what you buy in the store.

~~~
jdavis703
This kind of answer is why I love the HN community. Do you have any idea how
much 100% pure olive oil would cost? If it costs say $80, then making it on
your own and being assured of the quality really isn't that much more.

~~~
Retric
Your already paying the market cost of 100% pure olive oil at ~10$, the
problem is fraud not manufacturing costs.

Basically, this is what happens when the FDA is not actually doing their job.

------
DanBC
There have been a few stories about fake olive oil over the years. Here are
some that got comments:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6162401](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6162401)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7128495](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7128495)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12190996](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12190996)

~~~
MrBuddyCasino
If you're looking for a starting point to try real olive oil, someone
suggested "Iliada Extra Virgin Olive Oil 1 Litre". I can recommend it, though
I'm certainly not a connaisseur. You can get it on Amazon.

------
moogleii
Some peeps at UC Davis published a report on olive oil quality of various
brands back in 2010:

[http://olivecenter.ucdavis.edu/research/files/oliveoilfinal0...](http://olivecenter.ucdavis.edu/research/files/oliveoilfinal071410updated.pdf)

More here:
[http://olivecenter.ucdavis.edu/research/reports](http://olivecenter.ucdavis.edu/research/reports)

------
noahmbarr
This reminds me of Orange juice and something called "flavor packs".

[http://civileats.com/2009/05/06/freshly-squeezed-the-
truth-a...](http://civileats.com/2009/05/06/freshly-squeezed-the-truth-about-
orange-juice-in-boxes/)

This will ruin OJ for you, unless you see it squeezed in front of you

------
Philipp__
I buy extra virgin olive oil in Greece. No need for freezing or anything. Just
keep it sealed in the dark. But I get it that people all over the world have
to buy olive oil from supermarkets, so maybe then it's different story.
:shrug:

------
plesner
Incorporating old rancid stock is obviously bad. But besides that -- how bad
is this if people don't actually care? The danger of saturated fats is being
increasingly questioned[1] and evidence for the health benefits of
antioxidants is scarce[2]. If it's just a matter of taste and people like the
taste just fine then how bad is this really compared to other cost-cutting
measures companies use?

[1]: [https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/apr/07/the-sugar-
co...](https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/apr/07/the-sugar-conspiracy-
robert-lustig-john-yudkin)

[2]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antioxidant#Relation_to_diet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antioxidant#Relation_to_diet)

~~~
danjoc
Olive oil cut with soybean oil can have serious effects for people with
allergies to soy.

[http://www.paleohacks.com/oil/reason-for-adverse-reaction-
to...](http://www.paleohacks.com/oil/reason-for-adverse-reaction-to-olive-
oil-12306)

Likewise people with allergies to nut oils can have extreme adverse reactions
and die. It's not just fraud, it's dangerous for the people eating it.

~~~
justifier
i would agree allergies are the biggest concern

But for anyone else..

i cook 95% of my meals, and evoo, extra virgin olive oil, is in all of them

i tried lots of different brands and styles and just sort organically went
with the one with that left my body feeling and functioning in a way i
preferred

anecdotally, i would say when i've cooked with other oils some had a sort of
unsettlingly inert quality to them in regard to my body

i tried cooking with some nut oils for a while and they seemed to pass through
my body unabsorbed

the same effect when i did try some other evoos

i thought little of it and was just happy with the brand i eventually settled
on

when this study came out a while ago, i was surprised this shit is allowed,
but unsurprised by the offending labels

my 'absorbtion theory' lacks any significant scientific rigor, but one
annoying counterexample: the inconsistent evoo results; could be explained by
the frustrating results of this investigation

------
GFischer
The title is way too strong, but yes, most olive oil in non-producing
countries is diluted.

In my country (Uruguay) we had this problem as an exporting country, many
shady vendors dilute. They also did the same with honey (and got the country
banned from Europe).

As the article says: _" (1) diluting real extra-virgin olive oil with less
expensive oils, like soybean or sunflower oil; (2) diluting high-quality olive
oil with low-quality olive oil; or (3) making low-quality extra-virgin olive
oil, "typically incorporating older—and often rancid—stocks of oil held over
from bumper crops of previous seasons," _

------
notadoc
I wonder how many other products and goods are adulterated or deceptively
labeled. Probably many more than we'd be comfortable with.

~~~
zubat
Just the other day I cooked up some ground beef from Trader Joe's that was
obviously adulterated. It cooked up with an odd texture and filled the house
with a cheese-like smell that wouldn't go away for days. Beef should not smell
like cheese.

We still tried the resulting patties and did not suffer any ill effects, but
they weren't very appetizing, as you might guess. In the end we tossed the
leftovers.

~~~
PhantomGremlin
_Just the other day I cooked up some ground beef from Trader Joe 's that was
obviously adulterated_

About 40 years ago when I was a kid the local butcher would literally grind
the beef in front of you while you waited. A lot harder to adulterate
something when it's prepared on the spot.

I don't see that done any more, but maybe I'm just not shopping in the right
stores. I live in suburbia; it's probably easier to find an authentic butcher
shop in a real city.

Edit: I don't know the source of Trader Joe's particular ground beef. But I
once saw a show on TV about how hamburger patties are made: There have a giant
tray (hundreds of pounds) of relatively lean beef, and next to it a giant tray
of trimmings (mostly fat). They grind and mix these in proportion to the
desired leanness of the final product. Hamburger meat can be purchased in
various grades which differ in fat content.

Unfortunately, none of that could explain what happened to you, unless maybe
some of the fat mixed in to your hamburger meat was rancid?

------
brandon272
Any recommendations on where/how to buy real olive oil in Canada? Many of the
brands people talk about here do not ship to Canada.

------
johansch
This just reinforces what northern europeans think of southern europeans.
Basically fraudsters.

------
cdysthe
What this means to me is that my olive oil will be three times more expensive.

------
Borkdude
Olive oil was never a health food to begin with. It's about as healthy as
sugar water.

[http://www.forksoverknives.com/nutrition-questions/#why-
shou...](http://www.forksoverknives.com/nutrition-questions/#why-should-i-
avoid-oil-isnt-oil-healthy)

~~~
vixen99
Taking a good look at the peer-reviewed literature relating to the medical
effects of consumption of olive oil along with the quoted studies in your
link, one might be reminded of the writer Bernard Shaw who appeared on stage
after the performance of one of his plays. Cheering was unanimous and
prolonged until finally it paused and someone suddenly shouted "Boo!" from the
gallery to which Shaw immediately responded:

"You and I, Sir, are of the same opinion - but what are we against so many?"

~~~
helloworld
The five-year PREDIMED trial found that daily consumption of olive oil reduced
by 30 percent the risk of stroke or heart attack.

[http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1200303#t=abstrac...](http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1200303#t=abstract)

------
fiatjaf
Who has recommendations about olive oil producers in Brazil?

------
ivanhoe
Ok, just for the record, no one really does "crush the fruit and press the oil
himself" anymore, that would be extremely inefficient (and hard work). You pay
the local refineries to extract the oil. In Istria (Croatia) where I live
farmers take their olives to the refinery and get back the first run of cold-
pressed oil (here it's still pressed in hydraulic presses, not centrifuges).
It's what we call Extra Virgine and it's the highest quality you can get.
Refinery keeps the olives and further processes them to get the lower quality
oils (at least 2 more runs) and in the end for bio diesel. I presume that's
where the most of the oil in shops comes from. The price individual producer
can get is ridiculously low compared to the final price you pay in the
supermarket, so most farmers prefer to sell it directly when they can.
Therefore extra virgin oil of the highest quality never really gets to the
supermarkets in the large quantities, it's being sold to the restaurants and
hotels directly.

