Michael T. Roberts

We oftentimes do olive oil test tastings.

We talk about whether we care.

whether our sushi bar is mixing up species.

These are all interesting questions because fraud is not necessarily a safety issue.

Can be, but it's not necessarily.

I consulted with the Italian government when they were trying to crack down on their olive oil fraud.

Olive oil is a target because, one, it's high value.

Two, it's relatively easy to adulterate or mislabel.

Three, it's difficult for consumers and even regulators to verify without specialized testing.

Those are the three reasons.

High value, easy to adulterate, difficult to verify.

What do you adulterate olive oil with?

You can blend cheaper refined seed oils like sunflower, soybean, palm with small amounts of real olive oil.

And then you sell it as extra virgin or 100% olive oil.

You can manipulate the color, the flavor.

Yeah, I have to be careful because I get beyond my expertise, which is in law.

I assume you know everything.

I want my children to think that too, so let's not spoil that misperception.

A lot of it is diluting and blending, and then you have to sometimes patch up the problems you create by blending, and that's when you manipulate colors and flavors differently.

with dyes and so forth to try to get the genuine olive oil color.