`Italian Farmers Propose Anti-Fraud Seal for EVOO - Olive Oil Times
enEnglish
enEnglishfrFrançaiselελληνικάdeDeutscheitItalianozh-CN中文ptPortuguêsesEspañoltrTürkçehrHrvatskija日本語hiहिंदी
enEnglish
enEnglishfrFrançaiselελληνικάdeDeutscheitItalianozh-CN中文ptPortuguêsesEspañoltrTürkçehrHrvatskija日本語hiहिंदी

Italian Farmers Propose Anti-Fraud Seal for EVOO

By Ylenia Granitto
Feb. 18, 2016 13:58 UTC

An anti-fraud label to cer­tify 100% Italian extra vir­gin olive oil was launched by the Italian Farmers Confederation (CIA), the National Consortium of Olive Growers (CNO) and the State Mint and Polygraphic Institute (IPZS) dur­ing a press con­fer­ence held at the Foreign Press Association in Rome last week (February 11, 2016).

The new label­ing sys­tem, con­sist­ing of a num­bered seal with a QR code located on the neck of the bot­tle, is intended to defend Made in Italy pro­duc­tion from fraud which is esti­mated to cost the olive oil indus­try €1.5 bil­lion per year. The trade asso­ci­a­tions and the State Mint are now wait­ing for the Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies and the Ministry of Economy and Finance to offi­cially val­i­date the label.

All the reforms that we made in olive oil sec­tor helped the leap in qual­ity and this anti-fraud label is a fur­ther step.- Colomba Mongiello, Parliamentary Anti-Counterfeiting Committee

“Thanks to the expe­ri­ence gained over the years in the field of secu­rity print­ing inte­grated with ICT sys­tems,” Paolo Aielli, CEO of the State Mint and Polygraphic Institute said, ​“we devel­oped this effec­tive sys­tem of con­trol and track­ing which fol­lows and sup­ports the whole pro­duc­tion and dis­tri­b­u­tion sup­ply chain.” The sys­tem, he explained dur­ing the press con­fer­ence, is based on three pil­lars:

  • the secu­rity mark for recog­ni­tion and pro­tec­tion of prod­uct against coun­ter­feit­ing;
  • the trace­abil­ity via infor­ma­tion sys­tem that pro­vide data on the dis­tri­b­u­tion of sealed prod­ucts;
  • the retrace­abil­ity through the uni­vo­cal numer­a­tion that, com­bined with the con­trol code, allows to keep track of his­tory of sealed prod­ucts.

“Extra vir­gin olive oil is the flag­ship of Italian agri­cul­ture,” the pres­i­dent of the CIA, Dino Scanavino, affirmed. A sec­tor that strongly impacts the econ­omy and social fab­ric of vast areas of the coun­try with over 700,000 active com­pa­nies which, he added, are unduly pay­ing for a rep­u­ta­tion under­mined by recent events of fraud and adul­ter­ation.

“We are ready to place on the mar­ket the first mil­lion bot­tles,” the pres­i­dent of the CNO, Gennaro Sicolo, declared. ​“The goal of this project is to reward Italian olive oils with dis­tinc­tive stan­dards of qual­ity, accu­rately cer­ti­fied by third party insti­tu­tions.” He said the hard work and years of invest­ments in advanced tech­nolo­gies for prod­uct track­ing now per­mit an assur­ance of the ori­gin of the olives the processes through­out the sup­ply chain.

“Considering that the scourge of frauds severely penal­izes the indus­try and one in four coun­ter­feit prod­ucts is olive oil,” the vice pres­i­dent of the Parliamentary Anti-Counterfeiting Committee Colomba Mongiello said, ​“all the reforms that we made in olive oil sec­tor helped the leap in qual­ity and this anti-fraud label is a fur­ther step.”

According to the direc­tor of Qualivita, the foun­da­tion for the pro­tec­tion of agri-food prod­ucts, Mauro Rosati, the new label­ing ini­tia­tive, like the oth­ers in the same direc­tion, is the way to guar­an­tee the char­ac­ter­is­tic fea­tures of Italian prod­ucts, both in national and inter­na­tional mar­kets.

“I am fully con­vinced it’s now nec­es­sary a project of pub­lic char­ac­ter to give effec­tive guar­an­tee to the trace­abil­ity of Italian agri-food prod­ucts.”

More articles on:  , ,

Advertisement
Advertisement

Related Articles