Olive Oil Real or Fake Who Decides?
by: Kelly Martinez
Olive Oil Real or Fake Who Decides?
The evidence is overwhelming Real extra virgin olive
oil not only enhances the taste of food but is good for you, consider
the following headlines:
Olive oil 'acts like painkiller' - BBC
Mediterranean Diet Adds Years to Your Life (high intake of
... olive oil) - MedicalNewsToday.com
Oleic Acid Key to Olive Oil's Anti-Cancer Effect - Reuters.com
However, there is a dark side fraud in the olive oil
marketplace:
Olive oil's slippery supply line - denverpost.com
Extra Virgin Olive Oil - Are You Getting What You Pay For?
- ABC News 7Online
"A clear case of fraud ..... almost all of the virgin
and extra virgin olive oil produced by large commercial Italian
olive oil plants" Italianfood.about.com
"of 73 olive oils ... in the U.S. Only 4 per cent were
pure olive oil. The rest were adulterated" - New York Times
The health benefits of extra virgin olive oil only apply to
real extra virgin olive oil and not to fraudulently mislabeled
products.
As most olive oil consumers know, the price of real extra virgin
olive oil has risen dramatically. At the same time the quality
of the products being offered has deteriorated dramatically. Logic
would dictate that a significant percentage of olive oil consumers
would prefer real extra virgin olive oil instead of the over-priced,
mislabeled and adulterated products that have flooded the market.
However the olive oil consumer's freedom to choose their product
is limited to what is actually offered.
Food importers, distributors. brokers and retailers essentially
decide between two types of products when it comes to the distribution
of olive oil: A) A cheap mixed product or B) Real extra virgin
olive oil:
A) Mixed products have no guarantee of quality, the paperwork
may say 'extra virgin olive oil' but what is in the bottle is
pomace, canola or some other cheap refined oil. Mixed products
have no quality stated or implied, they are entirely price sensitive.
So the distributor, broker, importer or retailer needs to constantly
offer either the cheapest product or be very close to it for fear
that at some point their supply will disappear and they will be
undersold due to the market realities of working with this type
of product.
This is where the consumer gets cheated the labeling
does not accurately reflect what is in the bottle. Take for example
'light olive oil' - what is 'light' olive oil? Olive oil made
from 'light' olives? Light olive oil is 95% pomace, canola or
some other cheap oil mixed in with 5% virgin olive oil. It stretches
the imagination to think that olive oil consumers demand this
type of product.
B) Real extra virgin olive oil obviously costs more to produce
than the cheap, mixed products. But olive oil consumers benefit
because they get what they pay for - the product. Real extra virgin
olive oil is always that real extra virgin olive oil - the
product, the quality does not vary. Olive oil consumers always
get what they want and what they pay for - the flavor enhancing
attributes and all of the health benefits of real extra virgin
olive oil.
It should be noted that due to current market factors, the
price difference between real extra virgin olive oil and the cheap
mixes has pretty much closed and in some cases is now inverted.
Real extra virgin olive oil being less expensive than the cheap
mixes.
So, who gets to decide what olive oil consumers consume?
We believe that this decision belongs to the consumer. Olive
oil consumers should demand real extra virgin olive oil.
About The Author: Kelly Martinez is Managing Partner of B2BDistribut,
S.L.. Antonio Celentano Extra Virgin Olive Oil is extracted from
locally grown olives, bottled on site in Córdoba, Spain
and most importantly 100% real extra virgin olive oil. Please
visit: http://www.antoniocelentano.com
for product and contact details.
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