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Comment by Shivetya | Hacker News Reader

well for one thing wouldn't the EU want to be known as providing good food? The EU should simply not allow the products that are not true to be sourced from a EU country.

Your values aren't worth squat if they aren't applied to all you do. This just means that if you are willing to sell shit labeled as flowers to a foreign nation it will happen at home too

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The regulations we're talking about concerns the marking of food. You are still allowed to sell shitty vegetable oil, you're just prohibited from calling it Extra Virgin Olive Oil when you're selling it in EU. The fact that the shitty oil can be labeled whatever in the US is outside the scope and reach of the EU.

Fair enough, but then again, you were complaining specifically about _Italian_ olive oil rather than EU values as a whole. Keep in mind that Italy has large regions that were traditionally run by the Mafia and the Camorra:

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicilian_Mafia

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camorra

Also, keep in mind that - in contrast with the US and as already raised elsewhere - the EU tends to crack down on would-be fraudsters and prosecute when they find issues. Also, it's not unheard of for businesses to tip health inspectors to check out their competitors at the slightest hint of fraud. It might merely be an impression, but the same in the US seems to require alerting consumers and sometimes alarming them before the FDA bothers to wake up (as put on film in e.g. A Civil Action or Erin Brockovich).

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