“EU to ban olive oil jugs from restaurants”

Traditional refillable open-spouted vessels and dipping bowls will need to give way to “pre-packaged, factory bottles with a tamper-proof dispensing nozzle and labeling in line with EU industrial standards.” [Bruno Waterfield, Daily Telegraph] In perhaps not unrelated news, a new poll finds Euroskepticism strong in the U.K. [Telegraph]:

When voters are asked the exact question Conservatives want to put to the public in the 2017 referendum, “Do you think that the UK should remain a member of the EU?”, 46 per cent opt to come out, a higher figure than in other recent polls, while just 30 per cent want to stay in.

Update: May 23 (proposal dropped).

5 Comments

  • The olive-oil-container regulations make sense when you read the actual article. What’s been happening is that restaurants will advertise “extra-virgin top-quality hand-pressed olive oil”, charge like stink, and then present you with a nice glass bottle filled with cheap stuff from the local equivalent of Wal-Mart (which, moreover, has been getting topped off for the last six months instead of cleaned out and refilled, so you’re dipping your bread into a rancid bacteriafest.)

  • I am sorry Duck, but I don’t see that in the article at all.

    The article does not cite one instance of someone getting sick or a restaurant “charging” for EVOO and then getting another grade.

    It is the EU’s contention that they are protecting the diner for “hygiene,” issues and “the image of the olive” but unless I am missing them, I read no instances of the justification you gave within the article itself.

  • […] blamed public “misunderstanding.” [Telegraph via Alexander Cohen, Atlas Society; earlier] […]

  • It’s in the article. It’s tossed off with some snark, but it’s there.

    As for what customers can discern by taste, I direct you to the recent events in New Jersey’s bar scene.

  • The commission later admitted that they did not have a single instance of passing off actually having happened. And even if it did are there not existing laws to deal with the problem?