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The Spanish cooking oil scandal (2001)

theguardian.com

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Re: The Spanish cooking oil scandal (2001)

#21

Post by pipio21 »

It was not a scandal, it was criminal negligence, with lots of victims.

My hyphothesis after talking with chemists in the field is that someone reused a container tank for synthetic oil in order to carry rapeseed oil.

The rapeseed oil dissolves synthetic oil easily.

They probably thought nothing would happen because of ignorance on the part of the man that made it. He probably used water in order to clean the original tank.

We have some bottles today of the stuff that was retired from the market and could analyze it. There are traces on it of synthetic oil components.

This oil was sold in cheap rural markets, with a green colorant in order for it to look similar to olive oil.

Because of rapeseed accident, nobody in Spain uses rapeseed anymore. They use sunflower oil. Cheap oil from big multinationals that make things like cookies is basically Palm oil.

Palm oil is destroying a big part of the world natural environment.

Re: The Spanish cooking oil scandal (2001)

#22

Post by lottin »

willvarfar wrote: post #5

Are particular politicians implicated? Why does no Spanish TV station do a documentary on this scandal? What is the situation and dynamics of the 'free press' in Spain today?

As far as I know the "conventional wisdom" in Spain is that the cause was cooking oil. The other theory was reported in the mainstream media at the time but apparently it was dismissed as faulty science (see here: http://elpais.com/diario/1984/12/15/sociedad/471913201_85021...).

Re: The Spanish cooking oil scandal (2001)

#23

Post by Rezo »

pipio21 wrote: post #21

It was not a scandal, it was criminal negligence, with lots of victims. My hyphothesis after talking with chemists in the field is that someone reused a container tank for synthetic oil in order to carry rapeseed oil. The rapeseed oil dissolves synthetic oil easily. They probably thought nothing would happen because of ignorance on the part of the man that made it. He probably used water in order to clean the origina…

The article makes a convincing argument that it had nothing to do with oil at all and the government knew this from the start. Sounds like criminal negligence on the government's part.

Re: The Spanish cooking oil scandal (2001)

#24

Post by reo9Sahx »

pipio21 wrote: post #21

It was not a scandal, it was criminal negligence, with lots of victims. My hyphothesis after talking with chemists in the field is that someone reused a container tank for synthetic oil in order to carry rapeseed oil. The rapeseed oil dissolves synthetic oil easily. They probably thought nothing would happen because of ignorance on the part of the man that made it. He probably used water in order to clean the origina…

You did not read the article

Re: The Spanish cooking oil scandal (2001)

#25

Post by harperlee »

douche wrote: post #15
nextos wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you are wrong. This scandal is incredibly well-known in Spain. It's gotten massive press coverage throughout the years. In fact, most people that used to use cheap cooking oils switched to olive oil after the scandal. (For those who are not familiar with the matter, the scandal involved using chemicals on industrial-grade rapeseed oil to remove dyes and re-sell it to consumers.)

> switched to olive oil after the scandal Do you actually have olive oil in your olive oil? In the U.S., most of the olive oil for sale is either misgraded or adulterated[1] [1] http://time.com/money/4326354/fake-olive-oil-food-fraud/

If I recall correctly Spain is the biggest exporter of olive oil, with Italy and Tunisia somewhere behind (and in fact most of the Italian exports are just Spanish oil, Italian branded).

It makes way less economic sense to adulterate the olive oil in Spain when it is not a gourmet import, but a staple daily produce.

On the pricier premium virgen extra oil there has been some fraud, nonetheless (in Spanish: http://m.europapress.es/sociedad/consumo-00648/noticia-ocu-a...).

Re: The Spanish cooking oil scandal (2001)

#26

Post by zb »

douche wrote: post #15
nextos wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you are wrong. This scandal is incredibly well-known in Spain. It's gotten massive press coverage throughout the years. In fact, most people that used to use cheap cooking oils switched to olive oil after the scandal. (For those who are not familiar with the matter, the scandal involved using chemicals on industrial-grade rapeseed oil to remove dyes and re-sell it to consumers.)

> switched to olive oil after the scandal Do you actually have olive oil in your olive oil? In the U.S., most of the olive oil for sale is either misgraded or adulterated[1] [1] http://time.com/money/4326354/fake-olive-oil-food-fraud/

I was just in Spain, and was told that prior to the financial crisis much of the olive oil produced in Italy and Greece was made from olives grown in Spain. (Spain is a massive producer of olives.) After the crisis they stopped exporting olives and started bottling their own oil, which was the cause of the shortage in supply of extra virgin oil from e.g. Italy that led to organised crime getting into the fake olive oil business. So there's every reason to think that Spain in particular is awash in genuine olive oil.

Re: The Spanish cooking oil scandal (2001)

#27

Post by falava »

Narretz wrote: post #14

And yet, Wikipedia only has an article about "Toxic Oil Syndrome" that doesn't mention at all that it might have been a cover-up: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxic_oil_syndrome

The spanish version of the article[1] links to the alternative explanation (Bayer Nemacur pesticide):

[1] https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enfermedad_del_aceite_tóxico_d...

[2] http://www.cbgnetwork.org/129.html

[3] http://cbgnetwork.org/1522.html

As early as 1981 relevant spanish newspapers were telling the same story:

[4] http://free-news.org/index02-pag.htm

[5] http://free-news.org/cambio01.htm

Edit:

This is the last interview to Dr. Muro:

[6] http://free-news.org/afaber02.htm

Re: The Spanish cooking oil scandal (2001)

#28

Post by m_mueller »

Narretz wrote: post #14

And yet, Wikipedia only has an article about "Toxic Oil Syndrome" that doesn't mention at all that it might have been a cover-up: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxic_oil_syndrome

Don't look on Wikipedia when you want to know the consensus on a debated topic. It's notoriously bad at updating itself once new information has been found that contradicts a previous consensus and it also often presents one when there really isn't.

Re: The Spanish cooking oil scandal (2001)

#29

Post by joeyspn »

douche wrote: post #15
nextos wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you are wrong. This scandal is incredibly well-known in Spain. It's gotten massive press coverage throughout the years. In fact, most people that used to use cheap cooking oils switched to olive oil after the scandal. (For those who are not familiar with the matter, the scandal involved using chemicals on industrial-grade rapeseed oil to remove dyes and re-sell it to consumers.)

> switched to olive oil after the scandal Do you actually have olive oil in your olive oil? In the U.S., most of the olive oil for sale is either misgraded or adulterated[1] [1] http://time.com/money/4326354/fake-olive-oil-food-fraud/

> Do you actually have olive oil in your olive oil?

Yes, actually we are the biggest extra virgin olive oil producers, exporters and probably also the biggest consumers in the world. Most people here has or knows a friend that produces the oil himself... 100% pure (from the trees to the oil mill). I don't remember the last time I used sunflower oil (the alternative option).

http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-california-olive-oil/...

Italians and frenchies usually buy the product from Spain and rebrand it.

Re: The Spanish cooking oil scandal (2001)

#30

Post by cies »

jnbiche wrote: post #17
cies wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just like that the symptoms supposedly caused by the "Zika virus" is more likely to be a result from food by contaminated by pesticides/herbicides. The last line of the article is most telling indeed: > "Under no circumstances should the general public be informed." This is the main problem. We would all be much more selective when it comes to our food if we knew how flaky the quality is. But instead we trust the gov…

> Just like that the symptoms supposedly caused by the "Zika virus" is more likely to be a result from food by contaminated by pesticides/herbicides. You're making a claim here that pretty radically departs from scientific consensus. Do you have any background information on where you read this/how you determined this?

Sure (sorry for not backing it up in the first place):

http://thefreethoughtproject.com/doctors-groups-deny-microce...

Only days after a list of articles claiming no link with pesticides were published, here a link to one of them:

http://www.sciencealert.com/argentinian-report-says-monsanto...

I'm quite close to some people in academic virology and they also were not to keen on calling for a Zika outbreak.

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