Olives101.com

Coles and Woolworths are resisting pressure to comply with recommended labelling standards for extra virgin olive oil.   The new guidelines were introduced this year to reduce the amount of refined oils being sold as 'premium' or 'extra light'.   President of the Australian Olive Association, Paul Miller, says Aldi supermarkets are already using the [...]

By Brian Lockhart, The state’s strict new olive oil standards have left a bad taste in the mouth of one New York food importer who is arguing in court the rules are unfair, flaunt federal law and are hurting business. Dennis Kangadis, vice president of New York-based Kangadis Food Inc., also known as The Gourmet [...]

By Andrew Weil, Q: I understand that a magazine reported that a lot of the olive oil from Italy is adulterated with lesser oils and described ongoing fraud in the olive oil business. Do you have any information about this? A: I have read the article you mention, it reports that fraud remains a major [...]

A Toronto-area food importer and distributor has been fined for importing an olive/sunflower oil blend labelled as “extra virgin olive oil” in 2006. Jan K. Overweel Ltd., which markets the Emma, Casa Italia and Cortina Foods brands and other imported products, was convicted in Toronto in February under the federal Food and Drugs Act, with [...]

By Jeremy Smith & Anthony Barker, European Union regulators suggested granting olive oil producers subsidies for private storage from as early as June as a way to prevent more price falls, the European Commission said on Monday. The Commission’s proposal, to be discussed soon by national experts from the EU’s 27 countries, would allow subsidised [...]

A man found a unique, albeit illegal  use for olive oil this week, police said. He used a bottle of it to rob a convenience store. A witness was sitting in his car when he saw a man enter the store with a plastic bag wrapped around his hand, then drove away because he had [...]

Sheriff deputies arrested 39-year-old Cathy Latou who, reportedly admitted to embezzling over $360,000 from the Santa Barbara Olive Company. The owners of the company contacted the sheriff’s department on Monday, after Latou reportedly confessed to the theft. After a further investigation, sheriff officials discovered Latou may have taken an additional $90,000. Investigators believe the majority [...]

A Corning couple is out around $1,200 after thieves stole 4,000 pounds of freshly harvested olives Sunday night. By Ryan Sabalow, Katherine Woodson, who owns a 20-acre plantation with her husband Marshall, said that an olive harvesting contractor had worked all day Saturday and Sunday getting the harvest ready to take the fruit to wholesalers [...]

By Anne M. Hamilton, The stock market may be tanking, jobs are disappearing and the state budget is hundreds of millions in the red, but at least our olive oil will be safe. Prompted by a complaint from a Norwalk importer, the state Department of Consumer Protection has enacted regulations guarding the purity of olive [...]

By Leslie White, AUSTRALIA’S competition watchdog will investigate the apparent failure of some imported olive oils to live up to their premium “extra virgin” label. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission inquiry follows tests by a NSW Government laboratory that found many imported oils labelled as extra virgin were actually a lower grade oil, were [...]

Twenty members of the Italian NAS food piracy unit have graduated from a special course laid on by the Italian National Olive Oil Association Unaprol. Police said the group graduated from a course taught by the National Olive Oil Association Unaprol that included instruction on how to taste fake extra-virgin olive oil and how to [...]

Beginning Jan. 1, that bottle in the supermarket labeled “extra virgin olive oil” will need to meet international standards because of a new state law enacted by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this week. California law has long protected consumers against unscrupulous dealers selling imitation or blended oils as olive oil. However, said state Sen. Patricia Wiggins, [...]

By Jeremy Smith, Europe’s olive oil producers may soon have to mark their best-quality brands with origin labels to stop consumers being misled about where the oil comes from, EU officials said on Friday. Next week, EU experts will vote on whether to make origin labelling compulsory for virgin and extra virgin olive oils. If [...]

Authorities say a Waukesha, Wis., woman allegedly stole more than $25,000 from her employer by falsely claiming olive pits had cracked people’s teeth. Ellen J. Schroeckenthaler, 52, who worked for the Seville olive importing company in Waukesha, allegedly filed the false claims in other people’s names, then filled out company checks and had acquaintances cash [...]

By Jennifer M. Freedman, Mexican import duties on olive oil from Italy, Spain and Greece are illegal, World Trade Organization judges ruled, backing a complaint by the European Union while rejecting the bloc’s call for a repeal of the taxes. “Having found that Mexico has acted inconsistently with provisions” of WTO rules on subsidies and [...]