Buy Local to Avoid Economic Adulteration

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BUY LOCAL! BUY CERTIFIED!

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KNOW WHAT YOU EAT!

 

This Spring we attended a conference at the UC Davis Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science, titled Fighting Economic Adulteration in the Market Place. The Secretary of California of Food and Commerce was the key note speaker. Secretary Karen Ross defined that “economic adulteration is the fraudulent, intentional substitution or addition of substances in foods or beverages to increase the apparent value of quality of the product, while reducing the cost of its production”.

In California, as it pertains to olive oil, anyone who uses the term Extra Virgin Olive Oil on the label must have the certification seal on the bottle. This is an industry standard that has international implications as much of the oil in the US is adulterated with seed oils that are chemically and high heat refined oils. According to Secretary Ross, “this is an illicit activity for economic gain”.

The top adulterated products according to the speakers at this conference are olive oil, lemon juice, honey, maple syrup, saffron, milk, orange juice and apple juice. Extra Virgin oil can have no additives, and in modern times there is no such thing as first cold press. Most of the producers are milling with centrifuges and not pressing and making olive oil requires some heat for the chemical reaction to take place to produce oil.

So buyers beware, but more importantly buyer BE AWARE.

Buy local, talk with your producers, and trust but verify.

Visit us at IL Fiorello 2625 Mankas Corner Road Suisun Valley where we grow and mill our own olives.