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Green Gold: Our Love Affair With Olive Oil (encore)

Gastropod

CHAPTER

The Truth About Olive Oil Fraud

In 2010, UC Davis did a survey of 14 different brands of imported extra virgin olive oils on California supermarket shelves and they found that more than two thirds of them were actually not extra virgin quality at all. In February of this year, Italian authorities arrested 33 suspects from a Calabrian mafia clan. They were among other things allegedly exporting fake extra virgin olive oil. There's a lot of money to be made in this. High quality olive oil can sell for 50 bucks a gallon. Well, the fake stuff costs only $7 to make. Tom Mueller told us that the profit margin can be higher than selling cocaine.

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