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The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is antic­i­pat­ing an increase in sales of sub­stan­dard olive oils after the dis­ap­point­ing har­vest in Italy and other regions this sea­son.

In April, the CFIA will launch a 12-month inves­ti­ga­tion to hunt for olive oil prod­ucts that may be cut with cheaper oils such as peanut or sun­flower oil.

The olive oil har­vests in Italy, Greece and Portugal have suf­fered this sea­son, due in large part to cli­mate change and the dam­ag­ing effects of the Xylella fas­tidiosa pathogen in Italy. Italy’s har­vest is at a 25-year-low and experts have warned the Mediterranean coun­try may run out of olive oil as early as April.

The CFIA car­ried out a pro­gram two years ago, which failed to detect any signs of olive oil fraud. However, the Canadian gov­ern­ment is choos­ing to con­duct another inves­ti­ga­tion this year in light of the poor European har­vest.

If a CFIA inspec­tor sus­pects a given oil may be fraud­u­lently labeled, he or she can order a lab test. If results are pos­i­tive, the prod­uct may need to be rela­beled, held or recalled from store shelves and the offend­ers may be pros­e­cuted.

A manda­tory trace­abil­ity law passed in January demands that any­one sell­ing a food prod­uct be aware of the source of the ingre­di­ents.

In addi­tion to being decep­tive, mis­la­beled oil can pose an aller­gen risk if it has been blended with peanut oil or other unlisted ingre­di­ents.

Once pur­chased, the taste and smell of the olive oil can be fur­ther indi­ca­tors of the qual­ity. If the olive oil seems unusu­ally cheap, it should raise con­cerns.

In 2017, Brazil found that 64 per­cent of the olive oil sam­ples ana­lyzed over the pre­ced­ing two years were not up to label­ing stan­dards. Companies were found to have adul­ter­ated olive oil with cheaper oils, such as soy­bean oil and lam­pante oil, which is not deemed fit for human con­sump­tion.

A test car­ried out last year by Spain’s Organización de Consumidores y Usuarios found that half the national olive oils mar­keted as extra vir­gin failed to meet the stan­dards.

While North America has seen instances of fraud­u­lent olive oil in the past, Dalhousie food expert Sylvain Charlebois told Global News he pre­dicts that in Canada, at least, these num­bers are drop­ping due to increased CFIA test­ing.

• CBC News


• Global News