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Olive-oil fraud continues today, though modern governments are often less thorough and effective than the [ancient] Romans at preventing it. Olive oil has historically been one of the most frequently adulterated products in the European Union, whose profits, one E.U. anti-fraud investigator told me, have at times been ‘comparable to cocaine trafficking, with none of the risks.’ In America, olive-oil adulteration, sometimes with cut-rate soybean and seed oils, is widespread, but olive oil is not tested for by the F.D.A.—F.D.A. officials tell me their resources are far too limited, and the list of responsibilities far too long, to police the olive-oil trade.

(Source: newyorker.com)