The EU had a record number of potential olive oil fraud and mislabelling cases in the first quarter of this year as inflationary pressures fuelled an increase in the hidden market for the kitchen staple.
The cost of olive oil has more than doubled since 2018 with production hit by extreme weather caused by the climate crisis and other factors.
As the price has spiked, so has the number of “cross-border EU notifications”, which include mislabelling, potential fraud, and safety cases involving contaminated oils.
In the first quarter of 2018, just 15 such cases were recorded by the EU. That rose to a record 50 cases in the first three months of this year, more than a threefold increase, according to data released to the Guardian under freedom of information laws.
However, these cases are only those to have been detected and reported by member states to the EU directorate general for health. The figure omits domestic cases and the true scale of the fraud is probably much higher.
The incident reports included oils contaminated with unauthorised substances such as pesticides, mineral oils and one case where glass fragments were discovered.
There were also many cases where extra virgin olive oil was judged to be adulterated, for example by mixing it with poorer or cheaper quality oils, cases where virgin olive oil was labelled as extra virgin (a more premium unrefined oil with a lower acidity), and several cases of misleading or false origin labelling.
In February, in a typical example, Germany reported a case from Israel of “lampante oil”, a quality considered not suitable for human consumption without further refining, being marketed as “extra virgin olive oil”. Some oils crossed several borders, with Germany reporting a case of “misleading mislabelling of olive oil from Syria, via the Netherlands” in March.
Of the 182 olive oil fraud and non-compliance notifications sent to the EU since the start of 2023, 54 related to products from Italy, 41 from Spain and 39 from Greece.
The EU introduced new rules on conformity checks of marketing standards for olive oil, as well as methods for analysing it, in July 2022.
A European Commission spokesperson said the higher number of notifications in the system did not indicate an exacerbated risk for consumers. They said: “The yearly higher reported number of notifications are proof of better exchanges of member states’ competent authorities and their vigilance towards fraud in the agrifood chain.
“The commission has zero tolerance for fraud. With a view of providing consumers with good-quality olive oil in the EU, the commission organises annual workshops and fosters collaboration between EU countries to ensure that these checks are correctly implemented and ensures the exchange of relevant information for those working on olive oil.”
Chris Elliott, a professor of food safety at Queen’s University Belfast, said that while the consequences of ingesting contaminated olive oil could be serious, it was very unlikely to appear on the shelves of big supermarkets. He said: “Most people who cheat are likely to do it in areas where there isn’t any monitoring or surveillance. Small businesses or food services are more vulnerable to fraud.”
Liquid gold
Global heating has led to a fall in olive oil production levels in recent years. Crops in Spain, which produced more than half the world’s olive oil in 2018-19, have been hit by drought and heatwaves of more than 40C (104F).
Provisional figures from the International Olive Council (IOC) show global production levels are expected to fall to 2.4m tonnes in 2023-24, down 27% from 2018-19 and lower than the 2.6m tonnes in projected consumption levels.
As a result, prices have shot up. One hundred kilos of extra virgin olive oil from Jaén in Spain cost €787 in November last year, up from €262.50 five years earlier, making olive oil a more attractive market for fraudsters.
Elliott said climate-driven inflation was often behind rising levels of fraud: “Whenever we see fluctuations in prices of a commodity it’s always a clear sign of increased fraud in the next few months, as it provides an opportunity for people to cheat.
“Olive oil is one example. There has also been massive increases in things like chocolate where cocoa production is a massive issue; because of climate change there will be big increases in things like coffee. The more processed a food is, the more likely there will be fraud.”
The Italian central inspectorate of quality protection and fraud prevention of agrifood products (ICQRF) completed a programme last year that seized 380 tonnes of oil products worth more than €2m and reported 17 people to the judicial or administrative authorities for serious violations related to false or missing labelling, or fraudulent marketing of non-extra virgin oils as “extra virgin”.
In November, Italian authorities seized 550,000kg of oils declared as olive oil but which actually consisted of a blend of vegetable oils. The value of the seized goods was approximately €250,000.