The Italian Mafia's New Weapon: Olive Oil | Food Fraud Mafia Investigation 

I’m from South Italy, Apulia. We do produce extra virgin olive oil, the real deal, from organic olive trees but we haven’t been able to start our company business because the people doesn’t want to pay the right price for an excellent product that you don’t find in any store of the world. The real one, just the oil, cost to us around 10 eur/liter, how am I supposed to sell it for less than that amount? I believe the right price would be around 25 eur/liter but people don’t understand that if you want something excellent you have to pay for it!

Most product labels in NZ now say "made from local and imported ingredients", so we never know the true origins of certain foods

Wait until they investigate the honey industry 😬

The question is why did they wait until now to take a bigger action? This was known for decades...

Damn it, do I have to make everything myself now?

In India we pay somewhere around $15-20 dollars/lt for extra virgin olive oil while most oils (soyabean, sunflower, mustard, ricebran, palmolein oil is available for around $2/lt), even after paying the premium price, now I am doubtful whether that's the real deal or not.

I bought olive oil once that was actually olive oil. Like they accidentally shipped the real stuff. That was when I realized I had never actually had real olive oil before.

Thanks for this report. This is completely poisonous! The good thing about Albania it is that most of us make our olive oils even though you don't have olive trees. You can directly buy the olives from farmers and turn that into olive through the machineries (there are dozens of them scattered around the county). You decide about the thickness, temperature etc.

Well done, it's about time people told the truth. Thank you so much for being honest.

It's important to keep stopping these operations or the Italian quality producers will suffer too. For people outside of Italy it's better to stick with brands that have a known history and not to just look for the cheapest bottle on the shelves. Most Italian oil brands have a clear online presence and a long history of quality. If you suddenly see a cheaper oil with an unknown brand it's better to avoid it.

Next time someone tells you that canola, vegetable oils, sunflower, corn or grape seed oils are healthy, kick them in the head.

I am looking at a bottle of Italian extra virgin olive oil at the moment promoted by a uk tv celebrity says bottled in China !!!! why the hell would Italian olive oil be exported to China to be bottled , would love to get it properly sampled.

Punishment should be sever enough to deter criminal activity.

For as long as humanity has existed, so have criminals.

It's a fact that there's no sufficient culture abroad about olive oil (perhaps also about wines, tomatoes etc.,) so that also engine oils are thought they can work as well. In Italy there are only few specific areas where olive oil is produced ....in Liguria, Tuscany, small areas in Lazio, Puglia, certain areas in Sicily and in the North around the Garda lake. The olive oil produced in these areas have all a different taste due to the nature of their soil. That said every Italian has his own preference so that if for example I'm used to buy olive oil from Liguria it will be unlikely that I'll buy an olive oil from Puglia because its taste and consistence is completely different. This to say that one should learn to recognize what is what so to identify those products that might be fake regardless of the brand they carry on a bottle or a 3 / 5 litres can. On top of that, only the giant companies are planning to sell hundred thousand bottles/litres of olive oil hence the risk is more there rather than in a smaller production site with a limited market or number of bottles to sell. A bit of brain should always be put in use to survive this world. 🙂

If you are Mediterranean and grew up on a daily diet of extra virgin olive oil, you would quickly realize the Italian stuff you’re buying in American stores is not extra virgin. Lacks the color, the Aroma, the density, the assertive flavor... I buy Spanish, Greek, Lebanese (from Al Kura region). The Spaniards when they mix or blend, tell you on the label (like Al Wazir) and manage to keep it delicious.

Since 40 years italy has sold more olive oil that it can grow.

There are honest Italian and Spanish exquisite olive oil. But also dishonest ones, in both Spain and Italy. The point is that for me it make no sense to consider as Italian an oil that is not produced, totally or even partially, in Italia. Same would apply for any other country, although one of the main worldwide seller is Italy. An excellent Olive Virgin Extra Oil, cannot be cheap to produce, but also to be sold. But where there are huge gains, there is mafia.

Eu should be more strict on authenticity. Trust the Italian mafia for quality. And we pay through the nose... for byproducts. The consumer again getting damaged and the unscrupulous mafia getting rich. Shame.

In Italy have many control about food production, imagine what's happening in food production in the country not have any control like china or India

Excellent documentary, and the same goes for the wine too. When you can find Chianti all the way from Alaska to New Zeeland, you can only wonder if the Mediterranean Sea isn't covered in vineyards. Coming back to the olive oil, when I was living in Italy I was always going in the countryside to buy olive oil and wine straight from the farmers. A proper extra vergine cannot be less than €8/l at the farmer's gate, anything less than that is bent. Here comes the fault of the italian population, especially the young generation that are becoming food illiterates. They compare this €8/l price with the supermarket oil prices of €2/l, not looking at all at the quality. The supermarket extra vergine is in fact lampante (that sort of oil used in the past for the oil lamps). This way loads of farmers ran out of customers and now are selling their organic extra vergine to the big corporations that are bending it with all kind of other oils and substances to sell it later in the supermarkets chains as extra vergine. The Italian state is obviously at fault too for not protecting the DOC and DOGC labels for what they really should be, letting the farmers and consumers down.

I had relatives in Crete and I used to buy it from them. 0-1 acidity. It’s too expensive to ship and it was a hassle to go pick it up from the customs hall in downtown Montreal. The association of Kolymvary. Really miss it. Now I buy from Greek grocery stores. I buy the Athena brand.

Glad I’ve always paid for the best oil but even then how the hell do we know it is what it says it is on the label 🤷🏻‍♂️

It is rather sad that the exclusive reataurants didn't notice the fraud. Says something about the quality of the people working there as well.

If you want the real deal when buying extra virgin olive oil is easy, don't buy Italian, buy Spanish instead, no mafia and just for you to know Spain it is World's 1st producer by far far distance. The best that can happen to you when buying Italian is to be buying a good quality Spanish oil labeled as Italian, but at double the price.

This is common knowledge in Spain since at least 50 years. Italy buys spanish oil and wine and then bottles it as italian because it has better name.

THE ITALIAN COMMUNITY IS NOW DECLARING WAR ON THE MAFIA !

In the movie, Godfather II, Vito Corleone used the olive oil business to get to Don Ciccio to exact revenge for the murder of the Corleone family. One of the best movie scenes ever.

Hopefully the investigations continue. I pay premium for Olive Oil in the states and expect as much.

I live in New York City and stopped purchasing European olive oil ten years ago. Since then I've bought olive oils exclusively from California, Chile, or Australia, and only specific brands which I know to be completely authentic. The downside is that I have to pay more although not by much, but nowadays it's very difficult to trust any European olive oils unless you can be assured of the provenance. I buy some oils from a Portuguese grower who has yet to disappoint, but he is the exception.

i like how tiny the subtitles are. great job

Isn't the key takeaway here that the owners, chefs, and customers at top Italian, Swiss and German restaurants couldn't tell the difference between rapeseed oil and olive oil?

This is complex for people/ consumers who have allergic reactions for some unknown elements . Time for EU to check this and fine or close companies

I mean at this point, are we really surprised? EVERY industry of goods and services has its corrupted roots of business before it reaches end consumers. It’s the retailer that masks all the negativity in advertisements and marketing labels while we obliviously stroll down the grocery aisles shopping our hearts away.

Thick and wide ! We can’t trust anyone!

I used to buy only EVI but now since it can’t be trusted, I buy local from trees less than 100 miles away. I know it isn’t old and I know the soil and the level of pollution. Also there can’t be too many ppl involved to bring it to me

this trade around the mediterranean is stone-age old.

There is a similar documentary from 2011 in the States. The Coscto organic olive oil cut as the best high quality product.

Was it just me who thought he had dripped some oil down his chin when he tested and had to pause the video to make sure what the sketch was ?

This has been going on for years, I now only buy local grown in California and estate bottled

I knew about this when I started to notice that olive oil was looking more and more yellow. Once you had 100% olive oil, the smell the colour and the taste will forever be in your mind.

It's been like this even for wine's!

This is old news that the Italian mob cuts the olive oil with cheap vegetable oils. This is why I buy mine at Costco and seek brands that use 3rd party testing. Mostly, it is California oil.

The whole food industry wants showing up for what there doing to our food..🤮

Oh my, the mafia needing an oil change!

Hold up- Olive oil from Spain can be called Italian Olive oil?

What about fake meat and insects in flours? That is mafia as well!

The best olive oil you find in Greece if you Buy from local people and not in the supermarket

Poor quality olive oil has been an issue in Australia for at least 2 decades. The Italian Australians I know say don't buy Italian olive oil, it's fake. Buy local from small producer's to be sure.

The same business model is in the big pharma.....

Californian grown and produced olive oil is 100% authentic and delicious. If you live in the states, support Californian olive oil.

Most middle class moral panic ever! 😅

We’ve exported mix oil for 4 decades now..Costco was also one of our customers as rebranded. They want for cheap price so was it. Currently, we moved into mining & completely out of business since 2018.

I buy my olive oil directly from an amazing producer in Queen Creek Arizona, its so good!

Nice video

It's the honest olive farmers I pity.

At 9:20 ... calling "village" what officially is a "City" with over 60,000 people is 5tup1d. Moreover, why did the authors choose not to report that name? That city is Cerignola and fully deserves the nasty reputation that it has in Italy.

Bravi nella lotta , per difendere un prodotto che ci rende apprezzati e fieri di essere italiani 🤜🌏🤛

Those small dwarf olive trees are cheaper to harvest (they use machines) but the oil that they produce is crap. The best oil comes from the gnarled, ancient trees that you see in pictures of the Italian, Greek, Spanish and Portuguese countryside.

COSCO’s Kirkland brand rates the highest quality European blend .

very interesting. bad guys around, but also some good ones trying to protecting us

Just buy the Greek stuff, we don't do imports for extra-virgin olive oil.

Big mistake getting in between Italians and their olive oil. You know they’re gonna go hard on the investigation

Благодарение! 🇲🇰 Thank you! Grazie!

We've been doing olive and olive oil business since I was little, it's the first time I've seen such a thing in Turkey.

Citizens need to eliminate the corruption.

I only buy Croatian olive oil from small island 🏝 💯 percent authentic with hundreds years of experience and tradition

I am a small olive oil producer, an extra virgin olive oil cannot cost less than 10€ per liter, otherwise it’s a fraud.

Im italian and i love olive oil ,evo, when i bought a liter of evo at the market, i must read the label, 100% italian olives, the price is about 13 to 17 euro per liter, if you pay 4 or 5 € , is a mix ,or a fraud. And sounds better buy company that you know follow the rules. No italian sound name no corporate. And the taste is really different

I quit buying all Olive Oil

I ingest native olive oil on a daily basis. I don't buy cheap oil. So now I am confused if I am still buying GOOD oil.

I welcome the glorious olive oil.

Use butter instead......

An ltalian says, you need 15 kilos or more of olive fruit to make only a liter of virgin olive oil. That's why the price of olive oil is very high and it is not easy to find. The inexpensive one is surely fake, l believe.

You squeeze it or they squeeze you.

"Operation yellow gold" ummm... who is gonna tell them?😂

This is why in South Africa, we only purchase "product of South Africa" for olive oil and also honey. It is fully uncompromised, no wonder the imported products are often cheaper. Anyway, same shit, different day.

THANKS WOW KEEP IT UP FOR THE SAKE OF HUMANITY LOVE KINDNESS

Send them to The Colosseum, let the games begin.

Getting coconut oil shipped it to the EU from the other side of the world, makes sense

I buy only Greek olive oil ❤️

Thanks WOW THAT'S AWESOME AMAZING TERRIFIC

I use Borges Extra Light Virgin Olive Oil. Product from Spain. This is the only olive oil I like and trust.

Quite a lot of inaccuracies. In first place.. Italian oil has to be 100% Italian, it is NOT TRUE that by law it can be mixed. Many cheaper oils sold in supermarkets in EU, say oil of the "mediterranean area"

How can Spanish oil be Italian??

this video make me smart

😡😡😡BE CAREFUL !!! CANOLA OIL WAS ENGINE OIL CHANGE TO EDIBLE OILS THROUGH CHEMICALS !!!🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🕊🕊

Get a copy of Mark Twain's "Life on the Mississippi" 1883 "Yes, it’s a first-rate imitation, that’s a certainty; but it ain’t the only one around that’s first-rate. For instance, they make olive-oil out of cotton-seed oil, nowadays, so that you can’t tell them apart.’ ‘Yes, that’s so,’ responded Cincinnati, ‘and it was a tip-top business for a while. They sent it over and brought it back from France and Italy, with the United States custom-house mark on it to indorse it for genuine, and there was no end of cash in it; but France and Italy broke up the game-of course they naturally would. Cracked on such a rattling impost that cotton-seed olive-oil couldn’t stand the raise; had to hang up and quit.’ ‘Oh, it did, did it? You wait here a minute.’ Goes to his state-room, brings back a couple of long bottles, and takes out the corks-says: ‘There now, smell them, taste them, examine the bottles, inspect the labels. One of ’m’s from Europe, the other’s never been out of this country. One’s European olive-oil, the other’s American cotton-seed olive-oil. Tell ’m apart? ’Course you can’t. Nobody can. People that want to, can go to the expense and trouble of shipping their oils to Europe and back-it’s their privilege; but our firm knows a trick worth six of that. We turn out the whole thing-clean from the word go-in our factory in New Orleans: labels, bottles, oil, everything. Well, no, not labels: been buying them abroad-get them dirt-cheap there. You see, there’s just one little wee speck, essence, or whatever it is, in a gallon of cotton-seed oil, that give it a smell, or a flavor, or something-get that out, and you’re all right-perfectly easy then to turn the oil into any kind of oil you want to, and there ain’t anybody that can detect the true from the false. Well, we know how to get that one little particle out-and we’re the only firm that does. And we turn out an olive-oil that is just simply perfect-undetectable! We are doing a ripping trade, too-as I could easily show you by my order-book for this trip. Maybe you’ll butter everybody’s bread pretty soon, but we’ll cotton-seed his salad for him from the Gulf to Canada, and that’s a dead-certain thing.’"

What about olive oil bottles that have the DOP symbol? I always buy olive oil with this DOP symbol, regardless if Greek or Italian EVOO. Do I still have something to worry about?

So theoretically my olive oil had some guys tape measure in it?

interesting, smaller video lengths now?

Good old Chloroform and Mafia.. legend continues..

I learned about the Italian problem with olive oil in the 70s; why is this news? people should not buy Italian olive oil unless they are sure of its provenance.

okay but how do I now identify fraud olive oil?

Toys R us also got Bankrupt...you guys might wanna look into it too.

This is nothing new. While living all my life in the USA but being of eastern Mediterranean origin I have had extensive experience with olive oils from my families country. While purchasing Bertoi olive oil in the USA, numerous times the oil I taste is NOT of Italian origin but of an island further to the east. The container listed origin of the oil as Italian, bullshit. Relocating back to my families home region I find out that producers of oil take a portion of the oil from farmers who grow olives for processing the farmers oil. These processors in turn sell the oil to larger companies for bottling. There are also Italian companies that contact these processors to buy all of their stock no matter the quality but at a slightly reduced rate. It is obvious that tons of this oil winds up in questionable hands in Italy. Now for extra virgin olive oil. Oil must set for about a month before it can really be used and oil with an extremely low acid content is considered EVOO. The nutritional value of EVOO is only good for around six months at which point nutritional value starts to decline. Basically if the oil they sell you as EVOO has sat for more than six months, it’s regular olive oil. If it sits in storage for two months the quality of the oil will have a life of only four months. High heat in storage facilities also destroy nutritional benefits of EVOO. Harvest season will vary depending on the type of olives used and where the trees are situated within a country. It starts from late October in the south all the way to mid February in the northern growing regions. I know that my oil is EVOO and it is stored in a cool store room. We have it for several months into each new year for the best nutritional value, after that the taste is just as good however the nutritional value has dropped.

0:39 I wonder how clean the inside of those tankers are? 🤔

The prices around Minute 9 can not be near the real deal. Never ever they payd 90 Cent per litre. 99 Cent including taxes was the price for buying 1 litre bottled rapeseed oil in Germany before Corona and Ukraine. The real price for them buying it bulk and out of date must be significantly lower.

"Ba-bit-ah-boopy" - an Italian guy, probably

This and all sorts of other problems are caused by mass food production. Keep it local keep it real. When I lived in Italy I bought direct from the grower.