EU to Crack Down on Labelling Purest Olive Oil
Europe's olive oil producers may soon have to mark their best-quality brands with origin labels to stop consumers being misled about where the oil comes from, the European Commission said on Wednesday.
After a discussion by EU experts, the Commission will inform the World Trade Organisation of its intention to make origin labelling compulsory for virgin and extra virgin olive oils. The WTO will now open a 60-day period for the EU's main trading partners to make comments or object, then EU experts will take a formal vote. If there are no problems, the revised rules would enter into force in July 2009.
The idea is to make it clear to consumers if a bottle of oil has been made from olives from one EU country or is a blend that may include oil produced outside the European Union -- Tunisia, Morocco and Syria, for example, are all important producers.
'Rules introduced in 2002 established optional labelling for these oils, but this has proved insufficient to avoid consumers being misled about the true characteristics and origin of certain products,' the EU executive said in a statement. 'As a result of agricultural traditions and local extraction and blending
practices, such oils may be of quite different taste and quality depending on their geographical origin.'
Extra virgin is the highest quality olive oil, cold pressed and with a very low acid content, derived from the first pressing of the olives. Virgin olive oils have slightly higher amounts of acid. Neither grade may contain refined oil.
The idea is for olive oils that come from just one EU country to carry the name of the country of origin.
Blends would be labelled as either 'blend of Community olive oils', 'blend of non-Community olive oils' or 'blend of Community and non-Community olive oils', or equivalent labels.
The European Union is the world's leading producer of olive oil, accounting for around 80 percent of output and 70 percent of consumption. Spain, followed by Italy and Greece, are the top producers worldwide.
(Reporting by Jeremy Smith; Editing by Andy Bruce) Keywords: FOOD EU/OLIVEOIL tf.TFN-Europe_newsdesk@thomson.com
17 September 2008
SOURCE: http://www.hemscott.com/news/static/tfn/item.do?newsId=67010081668883