Between 2020 and 2023, reported food fraud incidents, which can pose serious health risks including exposure to toxic additives, increased over 1,000%.
Olive oil prices spiked to fresh records as severe droughts in major producing continue to crimp supplies — driving desperate people to resort to stealing it.
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Seven of the biggest olive oil manufacturers in the US have been cutting their products with cheaper, inferior oils (such as sunflower oil or canola oil) in order to minimize the cost of production. This prompted the University of California to carry out studies on 124 imported brands of extra virgin olive oil, and they found that over 70% of the samples failed the test.
Olive oil fraud abounds: some producers blend cheap nut, seed, or other vegetable oils with just enough olive oil to lend the look, taste, and aroma of the real thing. Other perpetrators dilute extra-virgin olive oil with lower-grade olive oil, or mislabel lesser olive oil as extra-virgin. Last, though not nearly as appalling, packers intentionally mislabel the country of origin.
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