How could you set about authenticating the claim that an oil it’s really hand-made?
In order to verify whether the olives by which the olive sample is made, are truly hand-collected or not, instead of using scientific methods I would propose recurring to social ones.
This is to say, I would send inspectors to overview the fields in which olives are collected and see if olives are collected by human operators.
If the answer is yes, then if would be fair to allow those companies to include “hand collected olives” on their bottles and vice versa.
Why do we think the manufacturer puts claims of this kind on the label?
To my mind, they use this strategy so as to enhance the overall quality of the product.
In general, it is considered that the more a product has been hand-manufactured, the better it is.
Therefore, most companies do not hesitate to claim that actual qualified people has participated in the manufacturing process of the product, although this is a vague idea, given that machines can do a perfect job as well.
Can you think of other products and claims that might be hard to verify?
On top of that claim, some others hard to verify can be made.
For example, that the optimize the flavour of the food on which they are applied.
This is difficult to confirm as its almost impossible to prove the chemical interactions product aimed-to-be-sold/ another edible product, plus it would be needed a large set of people, due to the fact that taste it’s a very personal matter.