Murat Du Carta / Chateau Carman
Producers of extra virgin olive oil, table olives and citrus fruit from our groves in Cyprus and Turkey
Tel 020 7251 4721
Email axipa@aol.com
Website www.planetmem.com

The great olive oil fraud

For many years now we have been led to believe that most commercially produced olive oils are the best and most pure available, unfortunately we were in some cases deceived
In previous years Olive oil from the supermarkets was all that was available to most of us, unless you was one of the lucky ones as I was to have 2 x 25 liter containers shipped to us every year from our own groves in Cyprus, we would share our gift with members of our family as they would share theirs

The rest of our produce would be sold off to the co operatives, who would ship it off to the commercial producers mainly in Italy for blending and repackaging
Many olive oils sold in British supermarkets are blended from a variety of different oils and the acidity levels chemically adjusted in order that they can be labeled extra virgin olive oil

Some of these commercial producers have been found to have blended their oils with cheap hazelnut oil as well as or with sunflower oil
It is also a fact that they have been importing olive oil from Spain, Greece, Tunisia and Turkey, blending it and marketing it as superior Italian olive oil
They have also been importing olives from the other olive producing countries and producing olive oil and marketing it as superior Italian olive oil (please note that the best olive oil is made with olives that have been picked and pressed within 1 to 36 hours, I doubt very much whether they can pick and ship olives from countries such as Tunisia and press olive oil within 36 hours).

I urge you to read the articles regarding this great fraud by clicking on the links below

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1580807/Italian-police-crack-down-on-olive-oil-fraud.html

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/08/13/070813fa_fact_mueller

I have written this article so that people can see that they have not in all cases been buying the genuine item
Most genuine producers are finding it difficult enough marketing their genuine products at realistic prices
Bearing in mind the higher costs of looking after the trees, as well as the cost of packaging and transportation
in my case my costs of transporting my oil from Cyprus is in excess of £1 per liter, add to that the cost of looking after the trees, harvesting the olives , taking to the press, packaging and marketing etc.

How on earth are supermarkets in the UK able to sell for example a one liter stone capped glass bottle of olive oil labeled as extra virgin olive oil produced in Tuscany, Italy, which I have sometimes seen on special offer at £3.99
In my case it is not cost affective to get organic certification, although everything I produce is to organic standards, might it be an idea to create an independent organization of small olive oil producers, or is there one already in existence?

please rest assured that my olive oil is from my olive groves in Cyprus and Turkey where myself or members of my immediate family not only look after the trees but also pick the olives when they are green or turning purple and take to the press within 24 to 36 hours at the most

For those of you with any doubts, you are more than welcome to book a stay on my olive groves in Turkey and see at first hand, depending on the time of year the looking after of the olive trees or come Oct / Nov the picking and the pressing.

I then have the oil and my table olives transported to the UK where I sell it through my shop in clerkenwell as well as at whitecross street market and through the internet You are more than welcome to put my oil through any test you like; it is pure extra virgin single estate oil and only available from me directly
Regards mem

table olives

hi
my name is mehmet and i am based between London, Turkey and Cyprus, i produce olives, extra virgin olive oil and lemons etc on my olive and citrus groves in Cyprus and Turkey
my cyprus extra virgin olive oil has recieved numerous write ups on its quality you can read these in the times online as well as the hello magazine and tiscali, in the case of the new york magazine my oil is described as "Englands best olive oil" you can also watch a short film clip regarding my cyprus extra virgin olive oil on youtube .
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=LdzvoBkVWC4

i have been importing my extra virgin olive oil since i inherited the cyprus groves 6 years ago, i have learnt and i am still gaining enormous amounts of knowledge with regards pure olive oil and some of the chemically refined rubbish that is sold to the general public and still labelled extra virgin olive oil

of recent times i am finding that people are buying more and more of my extra virgin olive oil as well as my preserved lemons etc, i am also finding that people are gradually buying more and more of my naturally cured olives nowadays saying there is a lot of difference in flavor to the commercially produced types some people also say that they can taste chemicals in the commercially produced olives, thats because a lot of them are cured in lye (caustic soda) i am glad that people are realising this and gradually turning to table olives that are cured the centuries old way as in my case my green olives are slashed by hand and then put in water for approx 15 days changing the water every day after which we add brine and citric acid, thats it after they are cured you can add garlic and so on if you wish, in the case of black olives we wash and dry and then put in a barrel with coarse salt at the bottom and then another layer every 3 inches or so, we then seal and roll the barrel daily for 2 to 3 weeks until all the bitterness has gone, i am glad to say that i now get more enquiries for produce prepared without the use of chemicals etc
you can read more of my articles and see how and where i produce my goods if you visit my website http://www.planetmem.com/ i hope that more of you will start to eat naturally produced products
regards mem