CFIA spotlights olive oil fraud

Article By Robert Arnason Published Dec. 10, 2025
Article Source: https://www.producer.com/news/cfia-shines-spotlight-on-olive-oil-fraud/

The agency’s food fraud report found that 24 per cent of olive oil and 45 per cent of grated hard cheese was fraudulent

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency's annual food fraud report found olive oil and hard grated cheese had lowest compliance rates. Photo: CFIA screenshot

WINNIPEG — If consumers want to avoid fraudulent food, they should think twice about olive oil.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency tested 92 samples of olive oil from April 2023 to March of 2024.

They found that 22 of the 92 samples were adulterated — where the olive oil contained lower value vegetable oils — or that claims of “extra virgin” and “cold pressed” were false.

Only 76 per cent of CFIA-tested olive oil was an authentic product.

“Grated hard cheese, olive oil and other expensive oils had the lowest satisfactory rates for authenticity testing,” the CFIA said in its Food Fraud Annual Report for 2023-24.

The report was released Dec. 10.

CFIA staff tested a list of foods over a year, looking at 712 samples of fish, honey, meat, olive oil, grated cheese and other products.

They also did 345 checks of food labels to verify that the ingredient list was accurate and to verify claims on the label.

Fruit juices, fish and meat all tested above 90 per cent satisfactory.

Grated hard cheese had the lowest rate of compliance. Only 55 per cent of samples were authentic.

“Cellulose is a food additive that can be used legally as an anti-caking agent, but when present beyond permitted levels, is considered an adulterant,” says the Food Fraud report.

“The practice of adding excess cellulose … results in financial loss for consumers who are paying for excess cellulose at the cost of cheese.”

The olive oil testing that found low rates of compliance in Canada is not shocking because fraudulent olive oil is a global problem.

Cases of mislabelling and adulterated olive oil set a new record in Europe last year.

The CFIA tested 84 samples of honey to check for foreign sugars from sugar cane, corn syrups and rice syrups.

Of that, 10 samples failed the test and nine of the samples were from imported honey.

For imported honey, the compliance rate was lower. About 81 per cent of imported honey was authentic.

The CFIA did crack down on companies and fraudulent food on grocery store shelves.

Some foods were destroyed while others were removed from Canada or relabelled before sale:

• 8,050 kilograms of misrepresented fish

• 10,027 kg of adulterated honey

• 37,300 litres of adulterated olive oil

• 141 kg of adulterated grated hard cheese

The CFIA also charged two companies that import seafood for offences under the Safe Food for Canadians Act and the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations.