China Asks Italy for Greater Controls on Olive Oil

It is the Chinese press that reveals that the authorities in Beijing have submitted a formal request to the Italian Embassy in China, asking for clarification and reassurance about the Italian companies that are suspected of selling, in China and abroad, oil coming from other producing countries as Italian-produced olive oil.

It was the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine that asked Italy to improve the management of the safety and quality of olive oil exported to China, after having issued a dispatch to its local offices requesting that controls and supervision over imported olive oil be strengthened.

At the end of December the customs authority of Shanghai opened an investigation into olive oil imported from Italy, after the news had appeared in the Italian press of an inquiry conducted by the Guardia di Finanza and the Corpo Forestale which had highlighted how much of the oil marketed abroad as of "Italian production" actually came from other countries.

According to the news leaking from the Chinese press, Italian oil is reportedly disappearing from the shelves pending the controls. In the sights of the Chinese food-counterfeiting investigators are in particular the products of a dozen large Italian companies, which would be the ones responsible for having knowingly mixed oils of Italian origin with those coming from Tunisia, Greece, Morocco and Spain.