Examining Ethics to Fight Food Fraud

Olive Oil: Most Adulterated Agricultural Product

SENATE RULES COMMITTEE Report
"of 73 olive oils . Only 4% were pure olive oil" - FDA"

'Is the olive oil you're using really olive oil? According to the New Yorker, chances are good that what's in that bottle is cut with hazelnut, sunflower seed, or canola oil.'

'In 1997 and 1998, olive oil was the most adulterated agricultural product in the European Union, prompting the E.U.'s anti-fraud office to establish an olive-oil task force. ("Profits were comparable to cocaine trafficking, with none of the risks," one investigator told me.)'



'There has been a rash of food fraud scandals recently, including Chinese-manufactured melamine-tainted infant formula that sickened at least 300,000 children and killed six last year. Manufacturers added the chemical to watered-down formula in order to reduce costs and cheat tests for protein content. The article’s authors, Wing-Fu Lai and Zenobia Chan, re-examined the incident drawing on various philosophical studies of ethics from Epicurus to Confucius. They claim that although legislation has a part to play to ensure food safety, in China and elsewhere, the role of ethics is often overlooked.'

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