The problem of olive oil being diluted with safflower or canola oil has bothered me for a while. I was very pleased to hear about a study done in New Zealand recently (2017) which looked at various brands. Now, as a Kiwi born and bred, I hate to say this, but the Australian oils came out on top. Red Island and Cobram estate brands of Olive oil were top for taste preference, olive oil content (100%) and other measures that make for a good oil. While it was tough to admit that the Ossies had won, I was also secretly pleased. You see, I had already figured out these two oils were good value and had been using them exclusively for the past year. I congratulated myself on my good taste and forgot about the nationalism. I’m not a football fan anyway………

The Spanish olive oils have a strong taste and I wondered whether this was a factor in their pure state. Does anyone know? Intuitively one would think it would be difficult to make an olive oil with such a strong taste that was cut with something else.

Whether a given foodstuff is adulterated *and what that food is adulterated with* depends on supply and demand, availability of adulterants, and and on the potential profit margins. That will vary with the country of origin and the country where the end product is retailed. Italian extra virgin olive oils rather than Spanish or Greek EVOOs have been targeted because demand and prices are high internationally.

Here in the EU I suspect there is more lower quality olive (pomace) oil available than soy or rapeseed/ canola oils, but that might not be the case in North America, Australia or New Zealand. It is certainly not beyond the wit of man to adulterate lower quality olive oils OR other vegetable oils with colours or flavours. That has happened in other cases of ‘food fraud’ (eg. saffron, fruit juices).

ETA there is a Wikipedia article entitled ‘Olive Oil Regulation & Adulteration’ that looks to be well researched/ referenced.