Restaurant owners are vehemently opposing EU rules banning the use of olive oil jugs and dipping bowls, describing the move as “ridiculous”.
It’s not fair that they are re-filling my bottles with cheap oil- producer
Sam Cremona, a leading producer of Maltese olive oil, feels the rules are justified and meet calls by producers, particularly small ones, to regulate the “rampant abuse”.
From January, olive oil can no longer be offered to clients at a restaurant table in small glass jugs but must be in pre-packaged, non-refillable factory bottles with a tamper-proof dispensing nozzle and labelling in line with EU industrial standards.
The rules were voted in by the majority of the 27 EU member states, including Malta, last week.
Considered too bureaucratic by many, the new rules are primarily aimed at protecting consumers from abusive restaurant owners who buy quantities of “cheap” olive oil and refill bottles sporting “fine” labels.
Deeming this EU initiative as the latest imposition by Brussels, many restaurateurs are threatening to either remove olive oil from dining tables altogether or start pouring oil themselves prior to serving food.
“This is simply ridiculous and we will resist it,” said Julian Sammut, a leading food connoisseur who runs a chain of restaurants.
“We don’t sell olive oil at our restaurants and we just put it on dining tables as a compliment. If we are now obliged to put sealed bottles on every table we might as well not put anything at all.”
Winston Zahra, director of operations, sales and marketing of Island Hotels Group, which operates several high-end restaurants, said the rules were ridiculous.
“I really can’t understand who in the EU came out with this idea,” he said.
“In 25 years I’ve never had any complaints about the olive oil served in our restaurants. This imposition will just increase costs unnecessarily,” he complained.
Asked whether the move would better protect the customer against abuse, Mr Zahra said it would not be the case.
“Customers already know what they should expect when they choose certain restaurants. This is simply bureaucracy at its best,” he said.
Mr Sammut added: “If we impose these restrictions then we must also start doing the same for the food we cook and present. This doesn’t make any sense.”
Mr Cremona begs to differ and has welcomed the Commission’s regulations: “We invest a lot of money in growing indigenous olive trees to produce the best possible oil. I know of restaurants that bought a few bottles of my oil years ago and are still serving it to their customers to this day. How can it be?
“It’s not fair that they are re-filling my bottles with cheap oil. It’s daylight robbery and shouldn’t be permitted. Olive oil is like good wine.”
Brussels insists quality is the most important thing for consumers and a spokesman said: “Restaurant customers must know what they are paying for.”
The EU is the largest olive oil producer in the world amounting for 70 per cent of the global output. The product has been prone to widespread fraud in the EU with cheap brands at times being passed off as high-end extra virgin oil from the top producing regions.
Malta’s olive oil industry, although microscopic compared to the rest of the EU, produces about 27 of the 3.2 billion tons produced worldwide in 2011.