IAN & SPAIN

"BARS and restaurants will no longer be able to use glass olive-oil bottles from January 1 next year as a result of a new law brought out by the Spanish government.

The Council of Ministers has decided that all olive oil served up must be in labelled containers to show its origin and brand, in a bid to stimulate competition across the European Union among producers.

Restaurants, catering firms and cafés must ensure all bottles have a mechanism preventing their being refilled so as to prevent them from succumbing to the temptation of filling empty bottles that previously held top-quality oil with cheaper, mass-produced types.

To prevent owners of eateries from having to throw away oil they already have in stock which is unlabelled, they will be given until February 28, 2014 to use it up.

After this date, only bottles with the brand name, origin and nutritional information may be served to the public. ....." Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

In my opinion this is a law that has been long awaited and has taken its time in coming. This is the only way that customers will be better protected from fraud. If you can't serve wine in refillable containers why should you be able to serve olive oil? Both are protected products and require certain standards for each quality category, something that has been ignored in the hospitality business for so long. I do not remember the last time I tasted a decent olive oil in a bar or restaurant, to be honest it is quite disgraceful what you find in the vast majority of places, even areas renowned for their oil. Oxidated, rancid, fermented oils that most people associate with good oils due to lack of knowledge so nobody protests.The business owners don't know any better or don't care or don't want to spend the money and get away with buying bulk and filling up often dirty refillable oil pourers, mixing old oils with new oils and God knows what else. It is just a shame that the EU knocked back this law as a Pan-European law for fear of the business owners in northern Europe, originally they had agreed to it but a week later they changed their mind. Maybe at some point in the future... I hope.