FDBusiness.com

Restaurants in the EU have to serve olive oil in tamper-proof packaging from next year, as Brussels has announced that it will ban the use of refillable bottles and dipping bowls of olive oil at restaurant tables.

From 1 January 2014 packs must be labelled to EU standards.

The Commission, the EU’s executive branch, says the move will protect consumers and improve hygiene. Olive oil is a frequent target of food fraud, with cheaper oils being sold in its place to unwitting consumers. An EU spokesman told PN:  “Dodgy olive oil can be unpleasant and dangerous, this protects consumers, and it is supported by countries where production and consumption is highest.”

However, critics have accused the EU of unwarranted meddling at a time of economic crisis.

A Pew Research Center study released on 13 May showed positive views of the European Union are at or near their low point in most of the eight countries surveyed.

But London restaurateur Sam Clark told the Daily Telegraph: “This will affect us. It is about choice and freedom of choice. We buy our oil, which we have selected from a farm in Spain, to serve our customers.”

European Commission spokesman Oliver Bailly said the olive oil regulation would benefit consumers.

“We are just making clear that when you want to have olive oil of a certain quality in a restaurant, you get exactly the one you are paying for,” he told a news briefing in Brussels.