I've never been a big fan of 'Buy Australian' when it comes time to purchase something. For better or worse, we live in a world economy and if we want to export our goods overseas, we, in turn, must take goods from overseas. In an ideal world it works that way.

However, the world is far from ideal. Kitchen hand has just revealed that none of the tested, imported olive oils on shelves, actually meet the German standard, which Australian olive oil producers want to adopt here.

Several brands tested were not entitled to be called extra virgin as they contained refined oils, one brand contained canola oil and another a solvent. Nor is the scandal confined to Australia with both Canada and the USA also having cases of suspect oils, which mostly seem to be coming from Europe, where, ironically, their laws are far more stringent than ours. It may well be, that other countries with lax laws, are a convenient dumping destination for those oils which fail European standards.

In the mean time, buying Australian olive oils seems to be the best way to guarantee that you get what you pay for.