Warning issued over fake olive oil sold in supermarkets in Spain

SPAIN’S food standards agency has issued a warning over the sale of fraudulent olive oil in supermarkets.

A study by AESAN found that some products labelled as ‘olive oil’ actually contained other vegetable oil extracts, while other bottles labelled as ‘extra virgin’ didn’t meet the quality required to be labelled as such.

At least seven brands were discovered to be selling sub-standard olive oil. These include the brand names Wafa, Riad Alan, Maysae, La Noria, and Virgen de la Salud 

“The distribution of the products has been mostly in the region of Murcia, but the fake olive oil has been distributed to other regions like Catalunya, the Basque Country and Valencia,” said AESAN in a statement. 

“We think that they might also have been distributed to other regions across Spain,” it added.

Spain’s consumer watchdog FACUA warned that there are insufficient controls in place. 

“There is not enough control by the Spanish authorities with regards to olive oil, and there is a lack of transparency on the few controls that they do” Ruben Sanchez, director of FACUA told the Olive Press.

“There has been more fraud in big olive oil brands, the frauds can be very different, some of them do not reach the category of extra virgin olive oil,” he added.

FACUA reported last year that brands including “El Corte Ingles” and “Hojiblanca” were selling sub-standard oil labelled as ‘extra virgin’ at supermarkets in the Balearic Islands.

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