Alert issued in Spain over scam involving seed oil being sold as ‘virgin olive’

A scam involving seed oil being passed off in Spain as ‘virgin olive’ has been discovered

Aesan, the Spanish Agency for Food Safety and Nutrition, has alerted the public today, Tuesday, April 5, to the clandestine production, packaging, and distribution of seed oil fraudulently labelled as being ‘virgin olive’, and ‘extra virgin olive’.

According to Aesan, proceedings have already been started as part of an operation to combat fraud in the sale of olive oil. The actual product in the packaging is reported to be really vegetable oil made from seeds, or a mixture of seeds, which could possibly pose a risk to health due to its lack of reliable traceability.

This product has apparently been distributed mainly in the province of Murcia, although they were also sold in Catalonia, the Basque Country, and the Valencian Community. It is not being ruled out that there has also been distribution in other autonomies.

The European Commission Services have been notified through the European Food Alert Network (Rasff), in order to verify the withdrawal of the affected products from the marketing channels in other possible points of sale.

The products involved are said to be Wafa virgin olive oil in 2-litre containers; Maakoul olive oil; Riad Al Andalus virgin olive oil in one-litre containers; Maysae oil in a litre; extra virgin olive oil La noria (5-litre containers); extra virgin olive oil Zannouti 31 31 in a litre; Virgen de la Salud virgin olive oil in 0.5 and 1-litre containers.

Also involved are extra virgin with the same denomination in 0.5-litre containers; Rahouyi extra virgin olive oil (2-litre containers), and another virgin olive oil without a commercial brand, in 5-litre containers.

The alert affects all batches and packaging formats of the products marketed under those names or brands. As a precautionary measure, it is recommended that anybody who has these oils in their homes refrains from consuming them, and return them to the points of sale, as reported by diariodesevilla.es.

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