On March 10, 2002 an Italian television station (RAI 3) aired an 11:00 pm news special entitled, "Scusi, Lei E’Vergine? ("Excuse me, is it Virgin?") The subject was fraud in the Italian Olive Oil industry. We are currently having the transcript from that program translated (23 pages in Italian) so that we can bring you more specific facts.

A brief overview: The news program discussed a case in which a boatload of olio di sansa* spent a few days in a Turkish port and returned with papers certifying that is was now extra virgin olive oil. It was a clear case of fraud, however, due to a technicality in the Italian law the perpetrators were set free.

The remainder of the program indicated that almost all of the virgin and extra virgin olive oil produced by large commercial Italian olive oil plants owes its certification to slight of hand of one sort or another. Much is olio lampante, which is made from olives that have fallen from the trees, are collected with large vacumn cleaners, and pressed. It is not fit for consumption and must be reprocessed to make it useful. It shouldn’t be extra virgin, but that’s what it’s sold as.

*an oil produced by treating the paste residue left over from the first pressing of olives with solvents to extract the remaining oil and then adding some virgin olive oil for balance.

Bernardo Iovene, RAI 3 TV (Italy), March 10, 2002