Recent News

Olive oil is served at every meal in Spain. In the morn­ing, expect toast with tomato and olive oil to start the day. For lunch and din­ner side sal­ads do not come with a plas­tic cup of ranch dress­ing to top that chunk of ice­berg let­tuce. This is olive oil coun­try and the prod­uct is used all day, every day until it runs down your hand as you take a bite of your toast. Some say if the stream does not reach your elbow you didn’t use enough.

Go to any restau­rant or bar and before you find a pep­per­shaker on the table you will see a bot­tle of olive oil. This bot­tle is known as an ​“aceit­era.” Since any­one can remem­ber, the typ­i­cal corked, stout glass bot­tle with a long neck for pour­ing has been a Span­ish table cen­ter­piece. Some were filled just with just olive oil and oth­ers had a few gar­lic gloves for Mediter­ranean fla­vor.
See more: Arti­cles on Refill­able Con­tain­ers
How­ever, there were prob­lems with this famil­iar sys­tem. Many ​“aceit­eras” were being refilled with­out being washed or were filled with less than mediocre oil. How could a con­sumer be sure of its qual­ity, hygiene and authen­tic­ity? And how could Spain, the world´s largest olive oil pro­ducer, pro­tect its image as well as its pro­duc­ers and des­ig­na­tions of ori­gins?

On Jan­u­ary 1^st, 2014 a royal decree was put into affect that required all hotels, restau­rants and cater­ing ser­vices to use only olive oil that was cor­rectly labeled and in either non-refill­able bot­tles or small, one-use pack­ets.

Many pro­duc­ers cel­e­brated the mea­sures as a way to pro­tect the iden­tity and qual­ity of their prod­ucts. How­ever, they were met with strong resis­tance from restau­rant, hotel and cater­ing own­ers. Instead of see­ing the ben­e­fits to image and qual­ity, many saw the change as an extra cost they were not will­ing to pay in a chal­leng­ing econ­omy. They had always bought the prod­uct in jugs and would refill cruets as needed.

It has been almost two years and many bar and restau­rant own­ers still have not adopted the change and seem to have no inten­tions in shift­ing their prac­tices. Pro­duc­ers and con­sumers are feel­ing like they are not being respected and as if they are at a dead end.

Despite ini­tial failed efforts in 2013 from olive oil pro­duc­ing coun­tries to have the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion pro­hibit the use of refill­able olive oil bot­tles in restau­rants, the Eco­nomic and Social Coun­cil (CES) in Jaén has not given up.

Just this past July, the province´s the CES has requested once more that the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment (EP) and the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion (EC) take mea­sures to avoid refill­ing in hotels, cater­ers and restau­rants. A writ­ten doc­u­ment explain­ing the impor­tance of ban­ning the prac­tice was pre­sented to the CE pres­i­dent, the EP pres­i­dent, the Agri­cul­tural and Rural Devel­op­ment com­mis­sioner and the pres­i­dent of the Com­mis­sion for Agri­cul­tural and Rural Devel­op­ment of the EP.

The doc­u­ment detailed the pos­i­tive impacts it would have, not only on prof­its and employ­ment, but also on the envi­ron­ment, bio­di­ver­sity and cli­mate change. The CES also explained how it would ben­e­fit sales of high qual­ity oil, con­sumer aware­ness and olive oil cul­ture. They also argued that non-refill­able, labeled bot­tles pro­tect con­sumer rights to a safe, qual­ity prod­uct.

In mid-August fur­ther action was taken. ASAJA-Jaen (a young farm­ers asso­ci­a­tion) embarked on a new cam­paign that encour­ages con­sumers to report bars, hotels and restau­rants that are non-com­pli­ant with the royal decree.

They urged con­sumers to take a good look at what they are being served. If the oil is served in a refill­able bot­tle or in a labeled bot­tle that has appar­ently been tam­pered with to refill it ille­gally, ASAJA asks that the cus­tomer exer­cise their right to ask for and fill out the con­sumer com­plaints form (Hojas de Recla­ma­ciones). These forms are avail­able in all busi­nesses and are to be made read­ily avail­able for clients in Span­ish and Eng­lish.

If food ser­vice estab­lish­ments do not yield to the writ­ten law, the hope among pro­duc­ers is that pres­sure from the con­sumer will be more effec­tive.

• ABC.es


• CES, Con­sejo Económico y Social de España


• La Van­guardia


• Jaen24h


• Boletín Ofi­cial Del Estado


• Horeca Food Ser­vice Mag­a­zine