ARCHIVED - Refillable olive oil bottles banned in restaurants from 1st March

From now on, olive oil must only be served at tables in sachets, capsules or non-refillable bottles

The period of grace for this legislation which came into effect on 1st January expired on 28th February, and from now on all restaurants must use olive oil bottles which cannot be refilled, and clearly show branding and labelling indicating the origin of the oil they are serving, so that “consumers are not being defrauded” by restaurants using inferior quality oils on their tables.

This effectively means that millions of olive oil cruet sets currently in use across Spain are now redundant.
Any restaurants not complying with the law from now on will be fined.
To replace their refillable olive oil containers restaurants are allowed to purchase branded bottles of olive oil which must be thrown away when emptied or use individual packed capsules or sachets of olive oil.
Ecologists have fought this measure tooth and nail, saying it will lead to increased olive oil waste, increased packaging waste and penalise small producers and the thousands of country restaurants who use oil produced on their own family plots and must now waste money on fancy packaging which does nothing to accentuate the flavour of the food they currently serve.
The processes to pass this law were decidedly traumatic, the government’s decision to pass this legislation in contravention of a European Commission decision to reject the legislation EU wide.
The saga of olive oil bottles on restaurant tables dates as far back as 2004 to Portugal, where a campaign to ban unlabelled oils in restaurants as a result of unscrupulous restaurant owners trying to make a few extra cents by refilling bottles with inferior substitutes culminated with legislation making it obligatory to serve olive oil from non-refillable bottles with sealed caps, a move followed a year later by Italy.
In 2008 a combination of factors including economic crisis and cheaper supplies from emerging countries such as Turkey and Africa had pushed the wholesale price of olive down for key European producers, namely Spain, Portugal, Greece and Italy, who called for a “strategic agenda” to combat falling prices. ( In other words, measures to protect their own local growers.)

By 2010 the EU olive oil advisory committee were onto the case and seeking support for an initiative to extend the measures adopted by Italy and Portugal to become EU wide, then in 2012 southern Spanish producers suffered from poor crops due to a heatwave and farmers started to run into difficulties, the situation exacerbated by economic crisis in the domestic market.

In April 2012 a meeting took place in Spain between Aceite de Oliva Español, which represents the country’s olive oil producers, the Spanish agricultural minister and the head of the advisory committee, the result being a series of recommendations for adoption, amongst which was the subject of olive oil bottles in restaurants, although other measures also included stringent quality tests to prevent mislabelling, and subsidies for olive oil producers to help them compete with non-EU competition.

In February 2013 the recommendations were put forward for voting, and 15 out of 27 member states voted for the measures, including the key olive oil nations of Spain, Italy, Greece and Portugal.
The UK abstained and the proposals were not accepted, but as no absolute majority was gained a second vote was held and the measures were pushed through on May 14th.

The backlash was immediate, the scheme criticized in countries such as the UK "This is the sort of thing that gets the EU a deservedly bad name. I shouldnt say so but I hope people disobey this ban," said one official.

And other voices added to the incredulity expressed in many media. "With the euro crisis, a collapse in confidence in the EU, and a faltering economy surely the commission has more important things to worry about than banning refillable olive oil bottles? They should be seeking to reduce unnecessary packaging instead."

And nine days later, the EU announced that the decision had been reversed, so restaurants could continue topping up their olive oil bottles as they have always done without EU intervention.
Lobbyists for the olive oil industry were livid, “It’s absurd that such a small measure that was meant to benefit both consumers and producers should receive such a reaction and that there could be such a huge U-turn by the EU Commission in a matter of days as a result of political pressure, ” they said, standing by their assertion that consumers were being defrauded by restaurants serving inferior oil.
But the Spanish government decided not to back down, and has pushed forward to pass its own laws for Spain, in the same fashion as the Italians and Portugese.

The government’s aim, according to the Minister is to avoid oil dispensers being re-used and oblige restaurants to supply oil which is fully and correctly labelled. In this way customers will be fully aware of the brand of oil they are consuming, the date on which it was bottled or packed, its geographical origin and the best-before date, and non-removable seals will ensure that different oil is not decanted into the same container. Individual plastic sachets will also be acceptable under the new legislation.

But it all goes deeper than just the question of labelling bottles of oil used in restaurants and into the realms of protecting Spanish olive oil producers from foreign competition, and maintaining the price of branded products. Mislabelling is common, although many consumers wouldn´t know the difference in taste between extra virgin and virgin, there’s a big difference in price, almost a euro a bottle, and this is something the Spanish Olive Oil industry, the biggest in the world, is determined to protect. The Consumers and Users Organization (OCU) has already reported nine Spanish brands for attempting to deceive consumers by selling products labelled as “extra virgin” oils when their true category is simply “virgin”, so the  OCU welcomes the new proposed legislation as a means of counteracting possible fraud and supporting Spanish Olive oil producers.

Food producing cooperatives throughout Spain have also welcomed the proposal, saying that there is little point in having such strict labelling legislation if the chain stops before the product reaches customers’ tables. On top of this they point out that the common practice of transferring olive oil from its original container to another one before consumption is detrimental to its taste, smell and appearance.

 The big question is, so when will this law be applied to the oil in which the food is actually cooked which represents a much larger consumption than the oil being drizzled onto a salad and has a far greater influence over the quality of the food being served in these same restaurants. Will the Spanish government now turn its attention to the bigger picture and decree that tortilla can only be made using Spanish olive oil, or prawns and garlic can only be sizzled in olive oil which has the correct packaging? Or will restaurants continue to buy the best value oil in order to remain solvent?
That should keep a few functionaries in a job for years working that one out.

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