In Greece, Olive Oil Remains Absent from Restaurant and Tavern Tables

Every sum­mer, mil­lions of vaca­tion­ers from around the world flock to Greece to enjoy the gor­geous beaches, visit the count­less ancient sites and mon­u­ments and taste authen­tic dishes of Greek cui­sine.

With extra vir­gin olive oil con­sti­tut­ing the basis of vir­tu­ally every food prepa­ra­tion in Greece, the country’s cui­sine is one of the most char­ac­ter­is­tic man­i­fes­ta­tions of the cel­e­brated Mediterranean diet.

However, in eater­ies across the coun­try, locals and tourists have no olive oil avail­able when look­ing to add extra fla­vor to their food; olive oil for cus­tomer con­sump­tion has been steadily dis­ap­pear­ing from restau­rant and tav­ern tables in Greece since 2018, becom­ing almost extinct nowa­days.

Legislation intro­duced that year required the com­monly used cruets of bulk olive oil avail­able on restau­rant tables to be replaced by tam­per-proof, non-refill­able bot­tles of branded vir­gin or extra vir­gin olive oil.

The reg­u­la­tion was pro­posed by mar­ket oper­a­tors rea­son­ing that small, non-reusable bot­tles would pro­mote qual­ity Greek olive oil and pre­vent con­sumers in mass cater­ing estab­lish­ments from using oils of dubi­ous qual­ity.

Under the new law, each serv­ing in restau­rants, hotels, or tav­erns should be accom­pa­nied by a sealed bot­tle of vir­gin or extra vir­gin olive oil — usu­ally 50 mil­li­liters or 100 mil­li­liters – to be opened at the table.

The Confederation of Craftsmen and Merchants (GSEBEE) hailed the mea­sure as an oppor­tu­nity for the olive oil sec­tor to increase its sales. According to esti­mates, around 10,000 tons of Greek olive oil would be required annu­ally to fill the sealed bot­tles that would adorn the tables in eater­ies across the coun­try.

However, food estab­lish­ments in Greece have been slow to adopt the rule, mainly due to the added cost, which some restau­ra­teurs chose to pass on to their cus­tomers.

“Unfortunately, we have to charge for the sealed olive oil bot­tles, whose price starts from about €1 for 50 mil­li­liters — which is absurd if one takes into account that olive oil is an essen­tial part of the diet and a basic food,” restau­rant owner Ioannis Kouzoupis told Olive Oil Times in September 2018, almost six months after the new leg­is­la­tion had come into force.

Yiorgos Economou, the gen­eral direc­tor of Sevitel, the asso­ci­a­tion of Greek olive oil bot­tlers, noted that olive oil for cus­tomer con­sump­tion is now com­pletely absent from the country’s food-serv­ing out­lets.

“There are no olive oil cruets on restau­rant tables since they have been banned, and usu­ally no bot­tles of branded olive oil due to the added cost,” Economou told Olive Oil Times. ​“When cus­tomers ask for extra olive oil on their food, their dish is usu­ally returned to the kitchen for top­ping up.”

To curb the incurred costs, an amend­ment to the leg­is­la­tion in 2020 allowed restau­ra­teurs to use non-refill­able bot­tles of up to 500 mil­li­liters, which would remain on the table until emp­tied, regard­less of how many cus­tomers used it.

However, three years later, the amend­ment remains largely uncom­mu­ni­cated and unex­ploited by eater­ies in the coun­try, depriv­ing din­ers of added nutri­ents and an extra touch of fla­vor in their sal­ads and Greek olive oil pro­duc­ers of an addi­tional sales out­let.

“It was the mix of the Covid-19 lock­downs, the ongo­ing food price infla­tion and the recent energy cri­sis that under­mined the ini­tia­tive of plac­ing branded olive oil on restau­rant tables,” Yiorgos Kavathas, a restau­ra­teur and head of the Panhellenic Association of Restaurants and Associated Professions (POESE), told Olive Oil Times.

“Nevertheless, It is a require­ment of the rel­e­vant mar­ket rule that eater­ies in the coun­try make olive oil avail­able to their cus­tomers,” Kavathas said, adding that the association’s inten­tion is for branded olive oil to reemerge on restau­rant and tav­ern tables.

“A cam­paign should be launched for branded Greek olive oil to reclaim its spot on restau­rant and tav­ern tables,” he con­tin­ued. ​”I also believe that the extra cost for cus­tomers is neg­li­gi­ble.”

In a round­table dis­cus­sion held last autumn in Rethymnon, Crete, par­tic­i­pants also indi­cated that the use of glass bot­tles of 500 mil­li­liters is more finan­cially viable and envi­ron­men­tally friendly than the use of smaller 50- or 100-mil­li­liter bot­tles of olive oil for indi­vid­ual use.

Experts at the dis­cus­sion said plac­ing olive oil in glass bot­tles of 500 mil­li­liters on restau­rant tables would have no real impact on the qual­ity of the oil even after one month of use.

Meanwhile, after inspec­tions by the author­i­ties, food estab­lish­ments in Athens and the south­ern town of Kyparissia were fined €500 each for plac­ing unbranded cruets of olive oil on their tables.

“We have already started sweep­ing checks in hotels and food estab­lish­ments across Greece,” said Kostas Skrekas, the newly-appointed Greek min­is­ter for devel­op­ment. ​“And we will go on. We have to pro­tect the Greek prod­ucts.”

Economou agreed that the law’s appli­ca­tion had weak­ened in the coun­try due to the pre­vail­ing socioe­co­nomic con­di­tions at the time.

“The law of 2018 aimed to pro­mote branded Greek olive oil in eater­ies, and the 2020 amend­ment [allow­ing bot­tles of up to 500 mil­li­liters] was chiefly intro­duced to keep the costs down,” Economou said.

“However, despite being a require­ment, the back­wash of the finan­cial cri­sis and the Covid-19 pan­demic shaped an unfa­vor­able envi­ron­ment for such a mea­sure to mate­ri­al­ize,” he added. ​“The min­istry and the mar­ket oper­a­tors decided not to put an extra bur­den on the food-serv­ing sec­tor of the coun­try.”

Economou noted, how­ever, that din­ers’ use of branded Greek olive oil in restau­rants and tav­erns would ben­e­fit the coun­try.

“We are con­tem­plat­ing dis­cussing with the min­istry how the mea­sure can be brought back,” he said. ​“It will sig­nif­i­cantly con­tribute to the image of Greece and become the country’s ambas­sador to the 20 mil­lion for­eign tourists who visit our coun­try every year.”

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