Medicine Hat, AB – With rough weather and the spread of bacteria killing olive trees at an alarming rate in Europe, food experts are predicting 2019 will be a bad year for fraudulent olive oils to be hitting the market.
Owner of The Hat’s Olive Tap Carmen Lambert says this has been an issue for a long time.
She says her store hasn’t felt the impacts of the olive shortage because they get a majority of their product from parts of the world like Australia and California.
Lambert says it may be difficult to spot a fraudulent olive oil, so you’ll have to leave it up to your sense of taste.
“One of the most common things that we find is that it’s rancid,” explained Lambert. “Rancidity will always come through in your taste. So, it’s that smell and taste of something waxy like a crayon.”
Lambert says legitimate olive oil will have very distinct characteristics.
“It should smell like something fresh, living and green. It should have bitterness on the tongue and pungency on the back of the throat. Olive oils that have no taste are quite often the example of something that is cut.”
Lambert says it would be more common for consumers to find fraudulent oils on the shelves of larger retailers.
“We pride ourselves in our supplier, Veronica Foods. They go to great lengths to actually have all of the olive oils lab tested and certified, as well as have a panel of organoleptic tasters to sample the products for defects. That lab-certification is what can really back that up.”
Lambert says although it isn’t guaranteed, the more information an olive oil label has on it, the more likely it is to be a legitimate product.
