The Civil Guard is investigating nine people, seven in Seville and two in Badajoz, for their involvement in the illegal marketing of olive oil, since they irregularly mixed vegetable oil to later produce, package, label and offer consumers as Olive Oil. Extra Virgin.
The action that arose from the health alert detected by the Spanish Agency for Food Sanitation and Nutrition (AESAN) and whose investigation has been carried out by the Nature Protection Service (SEPRONA) of the Civil Guard of Badajoz in collaboration with the General Directorate of Public Health of the Junta de Extremadura.
In this operation, some 70,000 liters of oil from mixtures of “lampante” oils with oils of different types refined, bottled and labeled under 17 commercial brands have been seized.
The nine investigated are considered alleged perpetrators of the crimes of fraud, documentary falsification, related to the market and consumers, and against public health.
Investigation
In a press release, the Civil Guard recalls that the operation started from the declaration of the health alert, in which they communicated that supposedly companies dedicated to the packaging and distribution of oils, would be irregularly marketing olive oil with deficiencies and irregularities in its labeled, lacking sanitary registration and, therefore, out of official control in its traceability in Extremadura.
From the procedures carried out by SEPRONA with the collaboration of the General Directorate of Public Health of the Junta, as well as pharmacists and veterinarians from different health areas and analyzes carried out by the reference laboratory, it was possible to know that the product was being offered for Its sale to the public packaged in 5-liter bottles, labeled as “Extra Virgin Olive Oil” actually was not.
Mix
These were mixtures of vegetable oil (oilseeds) with refined olive oils (olive pomace), more commonly known in the food sector as “lampante oil”, which is characterized as being of very poor quality and “not suitable” for human consumption, locating multiple points of sale in the provinces of Badajoz and Cáceres.
The labeling of these carafes lacked real information on the composition of the product offered, as well as sanitary registration by some commercial operators involved in its production, packaging and distribution, which showed serious traceability defects in order to avoid its true origin.
In the absence of control over it, the immediate withdrawal from the market of 17 affected brands and precautionary immobilization of some 70,000 liters was decreed.