Greek Event on Hospitality and New 'Cruet Ban'

The Association of Hellenic Industries for the Standardization of Olive Oil (ΣΕΒΙΤΕΛ) and the Panhellenic Federation of Restaurants and Associated Professions (ΠΟΕΣΕ) will host an event, ​“The Olive Oil in the food ser­vice indus­try” on November 15 in Athens to rec­og­nize Olive Oil Days 2017 — an annual cel­e­bra­tion estab­lished by the International Olive Council.

Topics at the meet­ing will include olive oil stan­dard­iza­tion, gas­tron­omy, mar­ket­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties in the food ser­vice indus­try and oth­ers, the orga­niz­ers said.

Panagiotis Karantonis, deputy direc­tor of SEVITEL, told Olive Oil Times: ​“This event is being con­ducted with the oppor­tu­nity of the new leg­is­la­tion, about the manda­tory use of stan­dard­ized and sealed olive oil, in the food ser­vice indus­try.”
See Also:Articles on Cruets in Hospitality
The usage of olive oil in bulk, widely pre­ferred until now by Greek restau­rants, will come to an end at the begin­ning of 2018. The new law, pro­moted by the Hellenic Ministry of Development, will oblig­ate restau­rant own­ers to exclu­sively serve stan­dard­ized and sealed bot­tles of olive oil on the tables.

Karantonis explained, ​“This was a mat­ter of high con­cern to us for the past 5 years and we believe that this way we will serve bet­ter the inter­ests of con­sumers, and pro­tect and pro­mote the qual­ity of the prod­uct, as well as the mar­ket, which will oper­ate more effi­ciently over­all.”

“We believe the food ser­vice busi­nesses will also ben­e­fit from this law, as they will be able to offer a higher qual­ity prod­uct to their cus­tomers. This is a mea­sure already in force in Portugal and Spain and it is expected to hap­pen soon in every olive oil pro­duc­ing coun­try.”

“Olive Oil is a valu­able and rec­og­nized prod­uct highly impor­tant for the human body and health,” Karantonis added. ​“Therefore it should be pro­vided in the best qual­ity as pos­si­ble nature can give. Changing the tra­di­tional way with a safer and mod­ern way for the prod­uct and its qual­ity is a pos­i­tive devel­op­ment.”

Karantonis said the mea­sure will be an effec­tive mar­ket­ing tool for Greek tourism as the food ser­vice busi­nesses attract mil­lions of vis­i­tors annu­ally.

• Association of Hellenic Industries for the Standardization of Olive Oil