EU bans refillable olive oil bottles and dipping bowls, in bid to end food fraud

Restaurants have been known to replace the genuine product with cheap imitations

Richard Osley
Sunday 19 May 2013 01:07 BST
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Refillable olive oil bottles will be banned in restaurants as of 2014
Refillable olive oil bottles will be banned in restaurants as of 2014

European Union officials were openly mocked yesterday for worrying about new rules which will dictate how restaurants provide olive oil to customers.

New EU laws announced on Friday will ban unlabelled glass jugs and dipping pots of oil from tables. Instead, businesses will be ordered to serve sealed containers to prove they are not being topped up with cheap alternatives. The new rules are due to come into force at the start of next year. European Commission spokesman, Olivier Bailly, said: “We are just making clear when you want olive oil of a certain quality you get exactly what you’re paying for.”

But Conservative MEP Marina Yannakoudadis said yesterday: “If the EU was properly run, people wouldn’t be so anti-Europe. But when it comes up with crazy things like this, it calls into question their legitimacy and judgement. The economic crisis in these countries isn’t because of olive oil; it’s because of the euro, and they should be concentrating on solving that problem.”

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