Like a Virgin, but Not Quite: Olive Oil's Dirty Secret

From Mother Jones: http://motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2011/12/olive-oil-extra-virgin-mueller

By Tom Philpott

Sat Dec. 10, 2011

The bottle of "extra virgin" olive oil on your kitchen shelf? It's probably not extra virgin, defined as cold-pressed and otherwise unrefined. And it might not even be 100 percent olive oil.

That's the conclusion of Tom Mueller's new book, Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil. Mueller first took on the subject in his 2008 New Yorker article, "Slippery Business," painting the European olive oil business as a shadowy underworld populated by crooks, liars, and hucksters—some of them occupying corner offices at transnational food firms. One EU investigator tells him that dealing counterfeit olive oil brings "profits comparable to cocaine," with "none of the risks."

Berkeleyside blog sums up Mueller's findings:

Complete article at: http://motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2011/12/olive-oil-extra-virgin-mueller