Regulators Investigate After Newspaper Identifies Olive Oil Fraud in Belgium

Summary

Belgian reg­u­la­tors are inves­ti­gat­ing after a local news­pa­per found that 20 out of 32 olive oil bot­tles labeled as extra vir­gin did not meet qual­ity stan­dards, with one sam­ple found to be adul­ter­ated. The inves­ti­ga­tion revealed that some olive oil bot­tles in Belgium did not meet the stan­dards for extra vir­gin, lead­ing to con­cerns about fraud and insuf­fi­cient over­sight in the European olive oil sec­tor.

Regulators in Belgium have launched an inves­ti­ga­tion after a local daily news­pa­per dis­cov­ered that 20 of 32 olive oil bot­tles labeled as extra vir­gin failed to meet the qual­ity stan­dards of the grade. One sam­ple was also found to be adul­ter­ated.

Het Nieuwsblad pur­chased 32 brands of olive oil sold at major super­mar­ket chains in the coun­try, includ­ing ​“cheap, expen­sive, and mid-range” options.

The sam­ples were sent to the International Olive Council-approved Dutch Olive Oil Institute since Belgium does not have an approved tast­ing panel. Several unopened bot­tles were also sent to local uni­ver­si­ties for chem­i­cal test­ing.

While the Dutch Olive Oil Institute con­firmed that 12 bot­tles were gen­uine extra vir­gin, the panel reported that another 12 only met the grade for vir­gin, with six more falling short of the vir­gin cat­e­gory (falling into the olive oil grade of vir­gin olive oil) and one qual­i­fied only as lam­pante, con­sid­ered unsafe for human con­sump­tion.

“Price was not a guide,” the Dutch Olive Oil Institute told Het Nieuwsblad. ​“Both the cheap­est and most expen­sive bot­tles had prob­lems, while oth­ers were indeed extra vir­gin.”

“In one case, we saw good oil degrade,” the insti­tute added. ​“But in oth­ers, defects showed the oil was already poor qual­ity when bot­tled. You can’t blame every­thing on stor­age — there is fraud too, as gov­ern­ment checks con­firm.”

Meanwhile, the University of Ghent con­firmed that one olive oil sam­ple labeled as extra vir­gin demon­strated chem­i­cal sig­na­tures that ​“closely match” sun­flower oil with addi­tional adul­ter­ants thought to have been used to add color and fla­vor.

Belgium’s Federal Public Service Economy, the reg­u­la­tor respon­si­ble for con­sumer pro­tec­tion, declined to com­ment on the inves­ti­ga­tion. 

However, the orga­ni­za­tion issued a recall for some of the affected prod­ucts and super­mar­ket chain Carrefour, from which some of the bot­tles were pur­chased, told Het Nieuwsblad that it had removed the affected prod­ucts from its shelves and was accept­ing returns.

A spokesper­son for Carrefour added that the com­pany does not ana­lyze prod­ucts pur­chased from third par­ties; instead, it relies on them to con­duct the nec­es­sary tests and con­trols.

Sodibel Group, which sup­plied some of the olive oil in ques­tion, also shifted the blame onto its Italian dis­trib­u­tor and told Het Nieuwsblad that they had received doc­u­men­ta­tion from the dis­trib­u­tor con­firm­ing the prod­ucts’ com­pli­ance. The com­pany indi­cated that it plans to take legal action.

Following con­sec­u­tive poor har­vests in the European Union dur­ing the 2022/23 and 2023/24 crop years, olive oil prices at ori­gin reached record highs, which pro­duc­ers, experts, and gov­ern­ment offi­cials said incen­tivized an increase in olive oil fraud. 

According to a 2024 report from the E.U. Alert and Cooperation Network, 74 olive oil sam­ples were flagged for non-com­for­mi­ties with declared qual­ity and label­ing dur­ing cross-bor­der checks. Overall, 15 per­cent of the 130 noti­fi­ca­tions for olive oil issued by E.U. mem­ber states in 2024 qual­i­fied ​“with cer­tainty as frauds of a cross-bor­der nature.”

Indeed, inves­ti­ga­tors uncov­ered dozens of cases of olive oil fraud in France in 2025 (though France Olive noted that this high­lighted the effec­tive­ness of the author­i­ties, as most olive oil was found to be cor­rectly labeled and gen­uine).

In neigh­bor­ing Italy, recent food fraud pre­ven­tion efforts have iden­ti­fied sig­nif­i­cant irreg­u­lar­i­ties, result­ing in 72 crim­i­nal reports, 76 seizures, 896 admin­is­tra­tive sanc­tions, and 843 for­mal warn­ings, pri­mar­ily in the olive sec­tor.

Meanwhile, Dcoop, one of the world’s largest olive oil pro­duc­ers with thou­sands of mem­bers, made accu­sa­tions of wide­spread fraud in Spain, cit­ing ​“mar­ket irreg­u­lar­i­ties” but pro­vid­ing no proof. Bottlers’ and exporters’ asso­ci­a­tions, along with the gov­ern­ment, sharply crit­i­cized the accu­sa­tions.

While the European Commission has insisted that increased fraud alerts are pri­mar­ily due to bet­ter mon­i­tor­ing, Wilma van Grinsven-Padberg, the panel leader of the Dutch Olive Oil Institute, stated that there is insuf­fi­cient over­sight of the sec­tor in Europe.

“Even this test of 32 bot­tles is more exten­sive than the min­i­mum yearly legal checks in Belgium or the Netherlands,” she told Het Nieuwsblad. ​“Belgium checks just 22 bot­tles a year.”

“The door is wide open for fraud,” added van Grinsven-Padberg and Arnold Koomans, also of the Dutch Olive Oil Institute. ​“There are few inspec­tions because lower-qual­ity olive oil has no impact on pub­lic health.” 

“That’s why it isn’t a top pri­or­ity for Europe,” they con­cluded. ​“The E.U. requires the Netherlands to check only 26 bot­tles a year, and Belgium just 22. So the chance of being caught is slim.”

• Het Nieuwsblad