Crimen y aceite de oliva

Italy olive oil police

A crack Italian police squad has been drafted into the battle against fraudulent olive oil producers. Olive oil is the latest food scare to hit Italy, after wine and mozzarella. The BBC's Mark Duff is in Milan from where he has sent this report:

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Twenty officers from the specialist food piracy branch of the paramilitary Carabinieri have just graduated as olive oil tasters. They've been trained to distinguish between top class extra virgin olive oil - that's unrefined, cold-pressed and expensive - and cheaper, adulterated stuff that's been diluted with poorer quality olive oil or other vegetable oils. They'll also be able to pick up subtle differences between oil produced in different regions of Italy and abroad.

The deployment of the unit comes months after Italian police uncovered the biggest olive oil fraud in a decade. Seven processing plants were seized - along with 25,000 litres of adulterated oil - and 39 people were arrested in an operation stretching from Bari and Naples in the south to Milan in the north. The suspects were accused of mixing olive oil with sunflower and soybean oils, then selling it on as top grade extra virgin oil.

Italy is the world's second biggest producer of olive oil after Spain - although production was down 15 per cent last year.

Mark Duff, BBC News, Milan

 Listen to the words

food piracy
piratería de comida

graduated
licensiado, graduado

to distinguish
diferenciar

adulterated
adulterado

to pick up subtle differences
notar diferencias sútiles

deployment
depliegue

fraud
estafa, fraude

stretching
que se extiende

selling it on
revenderlo

top grade
de la mejor calidad

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