Olive Press Backs Consumer NZ’s Call To Extend New Labelling Regulations To Cover All Single Ingredient Foods

New Zealand’s top olive oil producer, The Olive Press, is fully behind Consumer NZ’s call for the Government to extend its new labelling regulations to cover all single ingredient foods such as olive oil.

“Mandated country-of-origin labelling is the only way to ensure consumers are fully informed about the real source of the oil they are purchasing”, said Rod Lingard, The Olive Press’ chairman. “Consumer deception is inevitable otherwise”, he said.

The company’s announcement follows a recent investigation by Consumer NZ showing some extra virgin olive oils labelled as New Zealand in fact contain imported oils.

Mr Lingard said the company has all its extra virgin olive oils certified and labelled under the industry’s OliveMark® licensing scheme so that suppliers and consumers could have complete confidence in the authenticity of their products. He said The Olive Press had been crowned ‘Best Processor’ by Olives New Zealand for the last eight years and noted the two New Zealand oils judged worthy of a gold medal by Consumer NZ’s test panel – Olivo and Kapiti - were both produced by the company and OliveMark® licensed.

“However, the OliveMark® scheme is voluntary and not supported by some major distributors, which is disappointing”, Mr Lingard said.

Katrina Bach, The Olive Press’ managing director, said the issue for the company was more than just the consumer’s right to know.

“The brand promise of extra virgin olive oil as a healthy, life-enhancing superfood is central to the New Zealand olive industry’s credibility as a premium food producer”, Ms Bach said. “So it makes no sense to let local producers’ hard-won reputation for quality and authenticity be exploited by others using imported oils of undisclosed origin”, she said.

“The international olive market is renowned for misleading information about product origin, which is why many countries have moved to address this problem”, Ms Bach said.

“New Zealand and Australia already share harmonised food safety regulations. Australia moved to support its consumers and growers by mandating country-of-origin labelling for olive products in 2018. We need to do the same if we’re to protect consumers’ rights, support local olive growers, and help maintain the integrity of the New Zealand Inc brand”, Ms Bach said.

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