You May Be Buying “Fake” Extra-Virgin Olive Oil — Here’s How to Stop
8 years ago Lily Garner
Image source: POPSUGAR Photography / Annie Gabillet
As consumers, we have to stay vigilant about the food products we buy. Take honey: did you know that most bottles, including those labeled as pure honey, are diluted with high-fructose corn syrup? Unfortunately, extra-virgin olive oil is another common grocery item at risk of deceptive labeling.
The Problem
Sixty-nine percent of imported extra-virgin olive oil sold in California was falsely labeled.
The news has been filled with reports suggesting we can't blindly trust the extra-virgin olive oil on our store shelves. Recently, Italy increased its penalties for olive oil counterfeiting after investigators leaked details of a massive olive oil fraud. Around 7,000 tons of extra-virgin olive oil were labeled 100-percent Italian, though they included oil from other countries like Syria, Turkey, Morocco, and Tunisia. And you might have caught the 60 Minutes investigation of olive oil fraud in Italy, which looked into how the maf..