The International Olive Foundation (IOF) is an independent Swiss Audit Body for Extra Virgin Olive Oil. The aim of the Foundation is to protect the international "extra virgin" quality standard for olive oils. The quality standard "extra virgin" has been in existence for more than 50 years (EU Council regulation No 136/66/EEC of 22 September 1966) . The beneficial characteristics of extra virgin olive oil and its high quality with respect to other edible oils make it a very valuable and, therefore, expensive product. Yet olive oil is often adulterated with oils produced from cheaper fruits or seeds, or even with lower quality olive oils to increase profits or compensate losses. As a result, many of the olive oils which consumers purchase are not in compliance with the set standard, even though they are labelled as extra virgin. This is a worldwide trend: olive oil today is considered as one of the most counterfeit food products in the world. A comprehensive academic food fraud study spanning 30 years in the Journal of Food Science showed that olive oil was the single most commonly referenced adulterated food of any type in scholarly articles from 1980 to 2010. This situation has not changed. This all involves important financial issues that affect olive oil producing countries, but there also are serious associated health and consumer protection concerns. However, responsible national administrations and authorities are not yet ready to take appropriate comprehensive legal measures in order to stop fraudulent olive oil market activities. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that many consumers do not know what real extra virgin olive oil is like, and accept that what is being sold to them is indeed 'extra virgin olive oil', when in fact it is not. The IOF has been founded to guarantee full respect of the "extra virgin" quality standard (EU; Codex Alimentarius; Switzerland etc.), and to go even further: to promote extra virgin olive oils of excellen
