Brazil’s Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply (MAPA) conducted an investigation over the past two years into the olive oil market, which revealed widespread mislabelling in a country where olive oil consumption has risen sharply in recent years. MAPA analysed 322,329 litres of olive oil samples collected from 12 Brazilian states, and found 207,579 litres (64 percent) to be substandard. The inspection team investigated 279 samples from 214 batches, and 38,7% of the batches were problematic most of which related to poor quality olive oil being sold as good quality. The highest incidences of olive oil fraud occurred in those states with large numbers of bottling companies, and fraud was rife among bottlers who import olive oil in bulk, mainly from Argentina.
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