A bit of extra olive oil in your Greek salad? You will have to pay extra for it. Around one euro. As of 1. January 2018, refillable oil containers available to consumers at food offering facilities will be banned and replaced by non-refillable containers or small bottles.
The measure was proposed to the Finance Ministry by the Hellenic Confederation of Professionals, Craftsmen and Merchants (GSEBEE) in order to allegedly ensure the quality of offered olive oil and to better protect consumers.
In real Greek food life, the the food industry will charge consumers with a little extra, estimated one euro per non-reusable oil container or small bottle. The Finance Ministry will pocket its little extra as well as 24% of the one euro is Value Added Tax.
Fines of 500 euros will be imposed to those who will violate the new regulation and keep offering oil in the old containers that can be refilled.
Τhe new measure is expected to boost the industry of bottled olive oil and it is estimated that 10,000 tones of olive oil, i.e. 4.5% of the local production- will be used for this purpose.
According to media, it will be up to the owner of restaurant or food-serving facility to charge customers for the extra oil.
I read in some media that the charge will be 1 euro for 100ml of olive oil. I must say that taking into consideration that the retail price at supermarkets is around 8 euro per liter for an average olive oil , the price is “too low” and the quantity “too big.”
100ml for extra oil in the salad will turn the Choriatiki into a soup…
PS I wouldn’t know who is using extra oil in the restaurants – except in salad bars – where the salad is offered with dressing. Unless this practice will change and simple salads will be offered without olive oil dressing.
I predict Greeks living a restaurant with half-full or half-empty small bottles of olive oil.
And I am tired to see my cost of living increasing day be day with a euro here, a 5-euro there, a 10-banknote somewhere else.
And then I remembered this absurd planned EU regulation of 2013 that wanted to ban olive oil jugs and dipping bowls from restaurant tables and replace them with non-refillable sealed bottles. The EU Commission decision had to be shelved after a Europe-wide public outcry and accusations of meddling bureaucracy .
Guys, whatever does not work in Europe, Greece is the ideal lab to do experiments!
utter rubbish!!! you go to taverna who sells a greek salad for 4 eurp and you buy a bottle of olive oil for 1 euro to dress it up as per your liking…!! doesnt add up…i will bring my own bottle with me whether or not I am counting pennies..and the olive oil I purchases is from kalamata and yes its not branded nor sealed !! arrest me !!
how about every tomato in the salad being vacuum-wrapped in plastic until it’s delivered to the table? How about a monsanto logo right on the menu? with a credit card reader of course, dont forget those at every corner..
And how about the ministry of finance getting into the business of telling people what containers they may put their oil into?
when will we finally tell these assholes enough is enough?
Complete idiocy. I hope every restaurant owner ignores this absurdity from Brussels. Taverna owners by and large use oil that they themselves have produced and their customers like it that way.
Madness and stupidity both. How about a friend of mine who has a restaurant and olive groves both? He has always used his own oil in the restaurant. What is he to do now? Buy in inferior quality oil in tacky little plastic sachets and charge his customers for the downgrade? And what about when we order a Choriatiki for a table of eight? Will we get eight little sachets of oil, all to be opened individually (along with the eight little sachets of vinegar)?
And I like a lot of oil on my salad. Others I know prefer to be light on the oil and heavy on the vinegar. What of us? Are we supposed to fit in to this ‘one-size-fits-all’ policy?
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Are they Greeks, who are proposing this law? Have they forgotten their heritage? I just can’t believe the level of stupid in this idea.
The guys who are doing this have obviously spent far too much time in Brussels, where little plastic sachets of mustard, ketchup and dressing etc are the norm.
On the one hand they want to be environmentally conscious, on the other hand you get this. Any restaurant you go to in Toronto brings you oil and vinegar in cruets. They bring you oil and vinegar for dipping. We must be backward. What a blatant cash grab.
Clearly, this is a scam by the GSEVEE to raise their members’ profit margins by legislative interference in the market. As such, it is likely to be unlawful under EU rules — even though they are trying to dress it up in the garb of “consumer protection”. It’s more like the sort of protection offered by the Mafia…
Oh, and by the way, it reminds me of all the terrible mistakes of the recent and distant past, when the Greek state meddled extensively with markets not to protect its citizens, but to benefit its political parties.
This is just ridiculous the people who will profit from this are the finance ministry and the people who pack the oil.it will hit the ordinary people in their pocket, again. I would say “roll on the elections” but a new government would, I fear do nothing to repeal such an idiotic regulation. Should the Greeks be allowed to rule Greece, are they capable, I think maybe not.
It’;s the glass companies that will profit….