The European Union has established a comprehensive legal framework for conformity checks on olive oil, but it is not being applied in its entirety by Member States, according to the European Court of Auditors in a report published on Wednesday 14 January, which analysed the situation in four countries (Italy, Spain, Greece and Belgium, which is the EU’s main exporter of olive oil among non-producing countries).
“Member States do not implement [the legal framework] consistently. We identified shortcomings in the control systems, particularly with regard to contaminants other than pesticides. [In addition], the audit showed that it is not always possible to trace the origin of olive oil”, summarised Joëlle Elvinger, who drafted the report.
“[Member States] do not always carry out the required number of checks to verify that olive oil is genuine”, she added at a press conference. In addition, with the exception of Spain, the Member States do not systematically analyse all parameters when carrying out checks, she said.
Partial controls. The report shows that two of the Member States visited exclude certain parts of the production and supply chain from their compliance checks. Belgian authorities do not complete checks on online sales or inspect olive oil from third countries at importers’ premises. Greek authorities only perform conformity checks on olive oil produced in Greece and intended for the Greek market. They therefore exclude imported and exported olive oils from their controls.
Italian and Spanish authorities perform checks throughout the supply chain (industry, retail, imports and exports), including online sales, and cover olive oils from different origins. In Italy, the authorities are giving priority to preventing food fraud on e-commerce platforms.
Presence of pesticides. “Our audit showed that the control system for olive oil contaminants works well with regard to pesticide residues”, emphasised Joëlle Elvinger.
In this special report, the auditors note that the Member States identified very few cases in which contaminant levels in olive oil exceeded legal limits.
However, “we identified shortcomings in the control systems, particularly with regard to contaminants other than pesticides. [...] Our audit showed that it is not always possible to trace the origin of olive oil”, states the report.
Imported olive oil. Although the EU imports a volume equivalent to around 9% of its annual olive oil production, the presence of pesticides and other contaminants in imports from third countries “is not systematically checked” in the Member States visited. Italy has not complied with its plan to sample one consignment of olive oil per border control post per year, while imports of olive oil into Spain are not systematically analysed for the presence of contaminants, the report states.
The legal requirements applicable to olive oil lack precision on certain aspects (conditions for blending oils from different harvest years, authorisation to blend extra virgin and virgin olive oils). Member States adopt divergent approaches, which could impact the degradation of olive oil over time, according to the report.
See the report : https://aeur.eu/f/k92 (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)