“Once someone tries a real extra virgin olive oil
— an adult or a child, anybody with taste buds —
they'll never go back to the fake kind.
It's distinctive, complex, the freshest thing you've ever eaten.”
~ Tom Mueller, author of Extra Virginity
When Labels Lie
This article by Eileen Laird from Phoenix Helix spells out succinctly the message that we have been preaching for the last ten years:
"Olive oil fraud has become so rampant that an entire book has been written about it. Why has it become such a problem? Because extra virgin olive oil is big business. Touted for its health benefits in both mainstream America and the healing diets featured on this website, US consumers can't get enough of it. And therein lies the problem. There isn't enough to go around, yet suppliers don't want to miss a potential profit. Although standards exist for what “extra virgin” is supposed to mean, there are no teeth behind those standards, so producers can slip other oil into the bottle, slap on the coveted label, and sell fake oil quite easily to unsuspecting consumers."
