New York Times Revises Olive Oil Fraud Infographic

Summary

The New York Times revised an info­graphic on olive oil fraud after crit­ics claimed it was sen­sa­tional and inac­cu­rate, with changes made to clar­ify the sta­tis­tics and remove Tom Mueller as the source. The cor­rec­tions were made after the orig­i­nal piece had been shared glob­ally, with the updated infor­ma­tion address­ing errors in the orig­i­nal graphic and clar­i­fy­ing mis­lead­ing state­ments about olive oil fraud.

The New York Times revised an info­graphic on olive oil fraud that crit­ics said was sen­sa­tional and inac­cu­rate in parts.

The changes were made on the New York Times web­site today, just after 8:00 PM Eastern Standard Time, or about four days after the orig­i­nal piece was posted.
See Also:NY Times Olive Oil Fraud Infographic Timeline
Among the changes, Tom Mueller, author of the book Extra Virginity, was removed as the source of the arti­cle after Mueller insisted he was not respon­si­ble for the mis­in­for­ma­tion.

The slide that drew the most atten­tion stated, ​“69 per­cent of the olive oil for sale (in the U.S.) is doc­tored.” The Times changed it to ​“69 per­cent of imported olive oil labeled ​‘extra vir­gin’ did not meet, in a taste test, the stan­dard for that label.”

Another slide orig­i­nally read, ​“Bottles are labeled ​‘Extra Virgin’ and branded with ​‘Made in Italy’ (Oddly this is legal even if the oil does not come from Italy).”

It was changed to: ​“Bottles are labeled ​‘Extra Virgin’ and labeled ​‘Packed in Italy’ or ​‘Imported from Italy.’ (Oddly, this is legal, even if the oil does not come from Italy — although the source coun­tries are sup­posed to be listed on the label.)”

Another slide read, ​“The olive oil is cut with cheaper oil.” It was changed to: ​“At some refiner­ies the olive oil is cut with cheaper oil.”

Earlier, the illus­tra­tor of the arti­cle com­plained in a Twitter update that he was ​“get­ting let­ters on the nuclear mag­netic res­o­nance of olive oil from Italian chemists,” yet he was ​“only an illus­tra­tor.” With Mueller removed as the arti­cle’s source, it remains unclear who wrote the piece.

An expla­na­tion of the cor­rec­tions had not yet appeared on the Times Corrections page.

The cor­rec­tions could relieve those who thought the arti­cle’s gen­er­al­iza­tions rein­forced stereo­types and indicted legions of hon­est Italian olive oil pro­duc­ers. But when news trav­els at the speed of light, four days is an eter­nity, and the state­ments the Times retracted today had already been broad­cast and shared around the world.

UPDATE (Feb. 25, 2014):

An ear­lier ver­sion of this graphic con­tained sev­eral errors.

Olives that are used in sub­stan­dard oil are typ­i­cally taken to mills days, weeks or even months after being picked — not ​“within hours.”

The graphic con­flated two dubi­ous prac­tices that can be found in parts of the olive oil indus­try. Some pro­duc­ers mix olive oil with soy­bean or other cheap oils, while oth­ers mix veg­etable oils with beta carotene and chloro­phyll to pro­duce fake olive oil; the two prac­tices are not usu­ally com­bined.

Olive oil bot­tled in Italy and sold in the United States may be labeled ​“packed in Italy” or ​“imported from Italy” — not ​“pro­duced in Italy” — even if the oil does not come from Italy. (However, the source coun­tries are sup­posed to be listed on the label.)

A 2010 study by researchers at the University of California, Davis, found that 69 per­cent of imported olive oil labeled ​“extra vir­gin” did not meet, in an expert taste and smell test, the stan­dard for that label. The study sug­gested that the sub­stan­dard sam­ples had been oxi­dized; had been adul­ter­ated with cheaper refined olive oil; or were of poor qual­ity because they were made from dam­aged or over­ripe olives, or olives that had been improp­erly stored or processed — or some com­bi­na­tion of these flaws. It did not con­clude that 69 per­cent of olive oil for sale in the United States was doc­tored.

Finally, the graphic incor­rectly cited Tom Mueller, who runs the blog Truth in Olive Oil, as the source of the infor­ma­tion. While Mr. Mueller’s blog and other writ­ings were con­sulted in prepa­ra­tion of the graphic, sev­eral of his find­ings were mis­in­ter­preted.”

The New York Times Olive Oil Fraud Infographic Timeline