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The Association of Hellenic Industries for the Standardization of Olive Oil (ΣΕΒΙΤΕΛ) and the Panhellenic Federation of Restaurants and Associated Professions (ΠΟΕΣΕ) will host an event, ​“The Olive Oil in the food ser­vice indus­try” on November 15 in Athens to rec­og­nize Olive Oil Days 2017 — an annual cel­e­bra­tion estab­lished by the International Olive Council.

Topics at the meet­ing will include olive oil stan­dard­iza­tion, gas­tron­omy, mar­ket­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties in the food ser­vice indus­try and oth­ers, the orga­niz­ers said.

Panagiotis Karantonis, deputy direc­tor of SEVITEL, told Olive Oil Times: ​“This event is being con­ducted with the oppor­tu­nity of the new leg­is­la­tion, about the manda­tory use of stan­dard­ized and sealed olive oil, in the food ser­vice indus­try.”
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The usage of olive oil in bulk, widely pre­ferred until now by Greek restau­rants, will come to an end at the begin­ning of 2018. The new law, pro­moted by the Hellenic Ministry of Development, will oblig­ate restau­rant own­ers to exclu­sively serve stan­dard­ized and sealed bot­tles of olive oil on the tables.

Karantonis explained, ​“This was a mat­ter of high con­cern to us for the past 5 years and we believe that this way we will serve bet­ter the inter­ests of con­sumers, and pro­tect and pro­mote the qual­ity of the prod­uct, as well as the mar­ket, which will oper­ate more effi­ciently over­all.”

“We believe the food ser­vice busi­nesses will also ben­e­fit from this law, as they will be able to offer a higher qual­ity prod­uct to their cus­tomers. This is a mea­sure already in force in Portugal and Spain and it is expected to hap­pen soon in every olive oil pro­duc­ing coun­try.”

“Olive Oil is a valu­able and rec­og­nized prod­uct highly impor­tant for the human body and health,” Karantonis added. ​“Therefore it should be pro­vided in the best qual­ity as pos­si­ble nature can give. Changing the tra­di­tional way with a safer and mod­ern way for the prod­uct and its qual­ity is a pos­i­tive devel­op­ment.”

Karantonis said the mea­sure will be an effec­tive mar­ket­ing tool for Greek tourism as the food ser­vice busi­nesses attract mil­lions of vis­i­tors annu­ally.

• Association of Hellenic Industries for the Standardization of Olive Oil