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According to the book Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil, illicit manufacturers slap an Italian flag and the name of an imaginary producer on the label and dump this stuff on the US market, where consumers are easy pickings. But consumers in the US aren’t the only victims. Studies done in Australia and New Zealand found that half of their Mediterranean imports were fake, too. Anywhere olive oil is in demand is a possible target. How do you fake olive oil? Olive oil can be diluted with poor quality oils or sometimes there is no real...

The term "extra-virgin olive oil" means the olive oil has been made from crushed olives and is not refined in any way by chemical solvents or high heat… "In the past, the technology that had been used had been used really by the Romans, you grounded the olives with stone mills [and] you crushed them with presses." One olive oil producer told Mueller that 50 percent of the olive oil sold in the United States is, in some ways, adulterated.

CARMEL VALLEY, Calif. – Extra virgin, light, with lemon, unfiltered, cold-pressed: the variety of olive oil on most supermarket shelves is dazzling. But what does it all mean? These terms might be common currency among foodies and the farmer's market crowd, but they have never been enforceable, or legally defined in the United States — until now. The U.S. Department of Agriculture in April adopted scientifically verifiable standards for nomenclature such as "virgin" or "extra virgin," with extra virgin considered the highest quality because it has the best flavor. (snip) "It will put an end to marketing terms that are...

Federal agents who raided a Clifton warehouse Thursday weren't looking for the typical heroin mill or pile of laundered money. They were after a more slippery stash. The agents seized about 22,700 gallons of oil after the Food and Drug Administration found that the Hermes and San Giovanni brands had been substituting soybean oil for some of their extra virgin and pomace olive oil. Olive oil is approximately five or six times more expensive than soybean oil, according to the FDA, which estimated the profit of the swap at $105,600. "We will not permit New Jersey consumers to be defrauded,"...

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...

It's the age-old story, lying about virginity... Hey, get your mind out of the gutter. We’re talking about olive oil. Olive oil is one of the few oils that can be consumed in its crude form without refining. Pure olive oil retains its natural antioxidants and essential fatty acids. The problem is, more olive oil is being consumed today than is being produced, so time-saving and cost-cutting measures are being employed. Technically speaking, to be labeled extra-virgin, olive oil must be made from 100% olives. The olives are picked by hand and transported in well-aerated containers and then processed within...

Bob Pitts knows doughnuts. He fried his first one in 1961 at the original Dunkin' Donuts shop in Quincy, Mass. Just by looking at the lumps and cracks on a misshapen doughnut, he can tell if the frying oil is too cool or the batter too warm. But Mr. Pitts, the company's doughnut specialist, cannot find a way to make one that tastes good without using partially hydrogenated oil, now considered the worst fat in the American diet. An artificial fat once embraced as a cheap and seemingly healthy alternative to saturated fats like butter or tropical oils, partially hydrogenated...