Italian olive oil but only on the label, here is the scam that outraged America

The Producers: "We make top quality, we spoil the dishonest." The markups are huge sales for bottles "liars"

Italian olive oil but only on the label

THEY CALL HIM " liquid gold ." Or his majesty olive oil. Abroad - where in many cases comes from the "base" that composes it , and therein lies the problem - revere the Italian olive oil as a kind of divine nectar. How much is authentic , as we shall see shortly. Come to mind cartoons against Muhammad - with all due respect - in front of the dust of controversy caused by the 15 drawings with which the New York Times described the scams of extravergine in Italy and the "suicide" - is the word used by the authoritative newspaper that last night quietly retraced his steps - the mill " made ​​in Italy" .

How pure is our extra virgin olive oil? And most importantly , it really is " Italian " ? The attack comes in the folds of the front of a phenomenon that an investigation of the Republic brought to light at the end of 2011. Whilst it is true that when quality is the oil obtained by squeezing olives homegrown is the best, or certainly among the best of the world, it is equally true - but be careful not to generalize - that the production and marketing liquid gold " made ​​in Italy" stretch from a few years ample shade . What they consist of ?

Spain, Greece, Tunisia , Morocco. They are the main countries from which we import oil . And that oil - I have found in these three years, criminal investigation ended with massive seizures - in some cases is handled, mixed and bottled fraudulently. Italian mixed with oil . Correct for the most beta- carotene ( to mask the taste ) and chlorophyll ( to change the color ) . It finally sold labeled " extra-virgin Italian " . Seed oil and olive-pomace oil is the "bases" used by most crafty of the table, for the most part are bottlers . Technically, the vice is called adulteration and counterfeiting. It is an unfair choice of fulfillment of predominantly large companies . They are the ones who hold the oil market to medium-low . In some cases, these foreign multinationals who bought Italian brands . But in the same time there are media companies reach that hold historical and well-known brands .

"It is a metastasis that damages the sector penalizing the honest producers , an all against all that has come to make us all poorer " - says Peter Sandals , general manager of Unaprol . A metastasis that does not stop . A bit 'for the cracks of the law on the subject and a little ' because the oil business , including flaws , became a sea too big.

" We have reported this scourge in very difficult times , and for this reason we considered dangerous crazy that they did not care about the fate of the industry - says Stefano Masini, responsible consumption of Coldiretti - . Lobbies that protect the agro mafia , because of this we are talking about , they even brought to court . thought to close the game as well , to silence us . Then came the surveys , kidnapping , tons of oil leaving for the United States and other countries labeled " liars ."

Sophisticated import-export . The depart from North Africa, Spain, Greece and landed in ports Italian (Naples , Gioia Tauro , Livorno , Ancona, Genoa ) reach companies in Lombardy , Liguria and Tuscany. Here, type filling station , empty silos foreign oil : thus begins the " treatment," the transformation. Then you move to the labeling and sale .

With abnormal markups . If we think that a pound of oil in Tunisia costs 0.23 cents and that the average price of a kilo of fake oil " Made in Italy" is 3-4 euro , pull us over a thousand percent . The nafs of the State Forestry Corps in 2013, he has caught 204 and has saddled fines totaling almost € 5 million . "The law " save oil " was approved in February 2013 and is of extraordinary importance - thinks the deputy commander Amedeo De Franceschi - . Has allowed us to use the telephone interception and environmental offenses food . Has introduced new measures of repression and contrast fraud , but ... " . The law now is , it is true . But has not been fully implemented . The blame ? More than the inertia of public administration can the action of powerful industrial lobbies .

But we reason about a given. How is it compared to the 345 million liters of olive oil that we export ( year 2013) , we import 445 million liters ( in 2011 were 470 thousand ) ? Where do tons of oil "in" ? Italy - Coldiretti numbers - is the second largest producer of olive oil after Spain : with its 250 million plants grown on 1.2 million hectares of land, in 2013 he produced 480 thousand tons of oil . But Italy is also the largest importer in the world . It is behind this double record that lurk the shadows . The "suicide " of Italian oil celebrated by American cartoons .

Lots of phony oil popping out of the container at the start ( last year 110 million liters were exported to the U.S. , a decline of 13 % compared to twelve months earlier) . Or are picked up directly in companies. In December 2013, the Nac police have found a circuit that marketed bogus oil -free labeling : 14 tons were ready to flood the Christmas table .

Two months before the port of Salerno soldiers and officers of the Customs Agency has blocked a olive pomace direct in South Africa. I pretended to be extra virgin olive oil and greek or Spanish instead was "cut" . In Siena , the Company Olearia Valpesana , 110 million in sales , bulk oil resold to other bottling companies : "100% Italian " was written on the labels. It was a blend of virgin oil and lamp oil deodorized to remove odors. And they called it "gold" .

Olive oil, here is the scientific method
that removes any doubt about the quality and origin.

Researchers at the University of Calabria have perfected a technique based on magnetic resonance imaging and are now able to reveal freshness and origin of the product through the molecular analysis. "A response to the cartoons in the New York Times, but also sends a signal to those in the supermarket extra virgin olive oils to less than 3 Euros per kilo"

Comes from the University of Calabria scientific answer to the first hard blow to the " Made in Italy" by 15 illustrated plates which at the end of January, the New York Times said the Americans how much of that oil extra virgin olive pride flag is actually the result of improper and shameful adulteration . Oil and instead passed off as Italian imported from Spain, Greece, Tunisia , Morocco, to be handled, mixed , reimbottigliato and marketed fraudulently.

Well , the researchers Giuseppina De Luca and Loredana Maiuolo , together with the Director of the Department of Chemistry of the University of Arcavacata , Giovanni Sindona , have perfected a technique already in use, based on metolodogia of magnetic resonance imaging , which now allows you to determine with precision absolute freshness of olive oil , as well as to trace the origin without a shadow of a doubt. The patent, which is already authorized by the University , will be filed next week and promises to be an absolute novelty in the panorama of activities and initiatives aimed at ensuring the best quality of products , just as olive oil , which have a very wide daily use.

Tom Mueller : " Let me explain the scandal of the oil"

" The research unit of the University of Calabria - is written in a statement - had long since published in international journals a criterion to trace the origin of the product based on the identification and determination of these trace elements present in the oil that lead back where the land is cultivated. This means that you can now provide a service to those honest producers who , beyond all doubt, and not by reference to random organoleptic tests , they want to be certified in a scientifically sound the origin of the their product. "

Known for its applications in medical diagnostics , magnetic resonance imaging has proved to be a fundamental tool of investigation at the molecular level . The patent in question , in particular, plays in an effective and timely specification for a high quality extra virgin olive oil, contained in the Ministerial Decree of November 2012. Arrangement that defines the aging index of an oil in function of the ratio 1,2 - / 1,3- glycerides , which can vary from a minimum of 70 % for oil products in the period from November to March , 50% of those produced in the period from August to October .

The University of Calabria considers the achievements of its researchers the most timely response to the outcry and indignation aroused by the service in the U.S. The New York Times , but it sends a clear warning to all those dishonest producers whose activities have damaged one of the assets fundamentals of our exports .

" There could be no better answer - in fact the ear dell'Unical note - the cartoons published on 25 January by Nicholas Blechman in the New York Times, accompanying article titled Extra Virgin Suicides , that the adulteration of extra virgin Italian , which have greatly damaged the image of Italian olive oil in the world. , but a significant signal is also desirable to be given to the Italian situation , which sees supermarkets selling extra virgin olive oil , placed in chains by large companies , less than 3 Euros per kilo . "