Cooperation between the DOP Riviera Ligure olive oil Protection Consortium and the Central Inspectorate for the Suppression of Fraud

On Tuesday, March 6th at the Genoa branch of the Italian Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies – Central Inspectorate for the Protection of Quality and the Suppression of Fraud in agro-alimentary products (ICQRF), the director of the Turin office, Gianfranco Amerio, and the President of the Consortium will sign-off on the inspection schedule for DOP Riviera Ligure Extra-Virgin Olive Oil for 2012.

This is an important programme for supervising the markets that is implemented by protection consortia recognized by the Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies with their staff of inspectors with police powers who can draft and immediately submit complaints in the case of proven administrative offences.

In this specific case, audits will examine information about olive oils on the market provided on both labels and product information displays in stores. In addition, DOP Riviera Ligure Olive Oil in stores will be sampled to verify its conformity to production regulations.

“It is an administrative offence to use geographic descriptions on labels and in advertising to the public for oils that do not have a protected designation of origin: only oils conforming to DOP Riviera Ligure production regulations and subject to inspection can be defined as Ligurian oil; otherwise the label can only say that it is an Italian product or a mixture of European Community oils,” recalled Giorgio Lazzaretti, an inspector for the DOP Riviera Ligure Olive Oil Protection Consortium.

“Sixty-six audits conducted last year found two cases of nonconforming labels and 15 cases of advertising posters that featured a Ligurian olive oil that did not have the traceability provided by the Italian Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies (MIPAAF) through the DOP Riviera Ligure protected designation of origin, as required by European Community law.

As for quality, only 1 oil no longer had Riviera Ligure characteristics: it had to do with the last bottles of a certification conducted during the previous season that therefore have been withdrawn from the market”.

“The action of the consortium and supervisory bodies was to protect consumers and favour fair competition between companies,” recalled the President of the Protection Consortium, Carlo Siffredi.
“Consumers should read the label carefully and, if they want a Ligurian olive oil, they should ask for DOP Riviera Ligure extra-virgin olive oil. It is the only oil that can claim to come from Liguria on its label, precisely because it conforms to production regulations and is subject to a control plan that guarantees product traceability and a chemical-physical and sensory analysis that is more stringent than for normal extra-virgin oils”.

The numbered yellow label is evidence of this certification conducted by the four Ligurian Chambers of Commerce in their respective areas.

Thanks to the cooperation of the Chambers of Commerce, we are able to give consumers the information provided by the companies on which certification is based.

In the future, you will be able to go to the consortium’s site and enter the 6-digit alphanumeric code on the yellow label issued by the consortium to find all the information about the bottle of DOP Riviera Ligure Olive Oil purchased: it will contain the entire history of the product from the olive grove to the table.

Today, this mass of data is used for controls. We are asking it to also be used as a marketing lever, to be displayed as the oil’s identification card”.