Apparently that foot-indicator-of-size thing doesn't apply to women and their breastesses. 
Posted on 10/20/2007 6:50:50 PM PDT by JACKRUSSELL
FRAUD. It's associated with identity theft and bouncing cheques, but apparently it is also rife in the olive oil industry.
Fake olive oil is an international issue, especially in Italy, the world's leading importer, consumer and exporter of olive oil.
Australia the largest consumer of olive oil per capita outside the Mediterranean is not immune.
Olive oil is more valuable than other vegetable oils, but is costly and time-consuming to produce. It is also easy to adulterate, or fake.
In February last year US federal officials seized about 61,000 litres of what was supposed to be extra-virgin olive oil and 26,000 litres of a lower-grade oil from a New Jersey warehouse. Some of the oil consisted almost entirely of soybean oil, which costs about one sixth of the price of olive oil.
It was destined for Krinos Foods, which blamed the fraud on its supplier, DMK Global Marketing, which in turn pointed the finger at the Italian bottlers from whom it had bought it. Officials destroyed the oil, but no criminal charges were brought.
A year earlier, the Italian special police broke up a criminal ring and confiscated 100,000 litres of fake olive oil, with a street value of about six million euros ($A8.9million).
The ring was accused of colouring soy and canola oil with industrial chlorophyll, flavouring it with beta-carotene and packaging it as extra virgin olive oil.
Throughout the early 1990s, the owner of olive oil supply company Riolio, Domenico Ribatti, made a large fortune by cutting olive oil with hazelnut and myriad oils.
He supplied the "dirty" oil to some of the largest producers of Italian olive oil, including Nestle, Bertoli and Unilever, who sold it to consumers as olive oil.
In 1997, adulterated olive oil was so prevalent the European Union's anti-fraud office established an olive-oil taskforce.
In April, Italian Agriculture Minister Paolo De Castro announced its government had investigated 787 producers and found 206 were guilty of adulteration, false labelling, and other violations.
International regulations state that extra virgin olive oil must be obtained only from the olive, the stone fruit picked from trees.
The oil can be extracted using only mechanical or other physical means (by a press or a centrifuge) with no chemicals and in particular thermal conditions, which do not alter it in any way.
It must be free of defects and have acidity of 0.8 per cent or less, while virgin olive oil should have acidity of 2 per cent or less. It cannot contain oils obtained by the use of solvents nor be mixed with oils from other sources.
Australian Olive Association president Paul Miller said a "taste test" could sometimes reveal whether a bottle labelled as extra virgin was what it claimed to be.
"If you get a nice, fruity and fresh taste, then it's the real thing. If you don't get any taste, or if it tastes a bit fatty or off, then it's not."
It was difficult to determine how much of an issue olive oil fraud was in Australia.
"We've done some testing of imported and domestic labelled [extra virgin olive oil], using conventional tests because we know what's happening overseas.
"But we really don't know how much of a problem or if it even is one here in Australia because some of those conventional tests cannot always detect refined oil and other things."
However, thanks to a $385,000 grant from the Federal Government, the Australian Olive Association is cracking down on fraud.
It is implementing an industry code of practice, which will include a new, more advancedolive oil chemistry test in conjunction with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
Mr Miller said the regulations, which will come into place early next year, will involve random testing in the market and will put Australia "up there" with Canada as one of the strictest when it comes to olive oil fraud.
"We're getting pretty serious about this and the re-structure of the industry will help us police it.
"We want to make sure we're delivering what we're saying we're delivering."
However, consumers needed to be aware that adulterated oil would not harm them.
"They aren't selling anything poisonous, rather it's similar to saying 'This is a really good bottle of cabernet sauvignon' when it's in fact a $2 job."
Australia's olive oil industry is relatively small. While the world produces 3 million tonnes, we produce 10,000 tonnes some 0.3 per cent of olive oil supply.
Our biggest export market is the US and increasingly, China.
As for Canberra, its olive oil industry is considered "boutique".
"Canberra has some quite good oils, but being quite cool, it tends to be at the smaller end of the market," Mr Miller said. "Nonetheless, they produce quite flavoursome oil, so there's some interesting stuff happening there."
Pialligo Estate Wines has been producing olive oil for about seven years. Owner Sally Milner said the winery, which picked about two tonnes of olives this year and produced about 300 litres of oil, sells the product in a "very boutique way".
"We put it into smaller bottles and pair it with a red wine vinegar that we make, we sell it from the cellar door, and serve it in our restaurant."
Because the winery didn't attempt to sell the olive oil retail or wholesale, fraud was not a serious issue for the business.
"But if we ever got into the stage where we were competing in the open market, we would be concerned about it.
"It would also worry us in the sense that people would have bad associations or experiences with olive oil and may not use it again, which would be a real shame.
"Olive oil not only tastes great and enhances the natural flavour of food, it is also very good for you." Those in the industry will attend the Australian Olive Expo takes at Exhibition Park from October 28-31.
BTW, it's a malted beverage so folks with a gluten problem really should avoid it.
You do understand that folks who were not raised up on olive oil find it a tad less than delightful.
Interesting that they've found a pathway that eliminates the triggering mechanism for the T-cells. Now, if they can also eliminate the "other triggering mechanism" that sets the T-cells up to attack gluten after the ingestion of high levels of alpha amylase ~ that'd be almost magic.
We're going to try some chickpea flour to make a pizza crust.
I don’t like rapeseed aka canola (Canada oil); it has an off flavor, and it literally turns to varnish in my pans and is impossible to remove. In fact, it was formerly used in the paint industry! What the hell is wrong with people??
It seems to contribute to calcium dumping, leading to bone spurs and cataracts. That is the reason for the name change from Rape to Canola; all the printed info on the problems is linked to the name Rape (it's a type of mustard).
I fry with either olive oil, or bacon fat when the olive flavor might not be compatible. Hot press olive oil has little flavor anyway.
Your spurs can be prevented by using coral calcium powder (calcium to magnesium = 2:1) and PureTango’s Osteophase. To check if you’re using enough coral powder, use ph test strips when you first wake up in the morning. Range should be 6.2 to 7.0.
And I had the flu when I wrote that, so I had a personal inspiration.
Thanks, I’ll check it out.
We fry very little but use canola oil when we do, but I guess any at all is too much. I thought I got bone spurs because I eat so much dairy, milk, yogurt, cottage cheese, cheese, all low fat. Does that figure in? Maybe peanut oil would be OK.
Believe it or not, the spurs are a result of insufficient calcium, in the face of a cronic infection somewhere in your body. The calcium is drawn out of your bones, not your intestines.
Peanut is ok if you aren’t allergic to it.
If you have a hidden cronic infection, the amount in your bones is not the issue.
The scare over canola oil is an urban legend. Look it up on snopes.com or hoaxbusters.
I don’t look anything up on snopes.
They love to demolish a strawman, and ignore the real deal right beside it. The dangers of Canola are well documented.
“The dangers of Canola are well documented.”
I haven’t seen any reputable person or group report that. There is no scientific evidence that canola oil is dangerous.
For whatever reason, someone dreamed up the scare story about canola oil. It is simply not true. If you have some real evidence, I would like to read it.
David Gould (FR: niwit)
Posted the studies here at FR in 98 or 99. It was about 5 or 6 pages as I recall.
Apparently that foot-indicator-of-size thing doesn't apply to women and their breastesses.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.