An olive oil recalled for an ingredient never cleared for food
LMSI LLC, trading as Kofinas Olive Oil of Cincinnati, recalled its Garlic Mediterranean Infused Extra Virgin Olive Oil after finding it had been flavoured with a garlic essential oil not approved for culinary use. No illnesses have been reported. What makes this recall worth reading is that the problem is neither a germ nor an allergen: the bottle contained something that was never cleared to be eaten at all.
What is recalled
Product: Kofinas Garlic Mediterranean Infused Extra Virgin Olive Oil, in glass bottles of 500 ml, 250 ml and 100 ml.
Sold: August 31, 2025 to August 27, 2026 — just under a year.
Where: Montgomery Store & Infusion Kitchen (8210 Market Place Ln.) and Findlay Market (1801 Race St.), both in Cincinnati, Ohio, and online at kofinasoliveoil.com.
Lot codes: none given — see below.
Questions: 513-325-5502 or 513-981-1412.
Food-grade and food-safe are not the same thing
Garlic essential oil and garlic flavouring are not interchangeable, even when the label on the shelf reads the same.
A culinary flavouring is manufactured for consumption. It is produced under food-safety controls, its identity and purity are documented, its carrier solvents are food-approved, and its use levels are established. An essential oil sold for aromatherapy, cosmetics or household cleaning is made to entirely different specifications. It is typically far more concentrated, it may carry processing residues that would never be acceptable in food, and nobody has assembled the documentation that would allow it into the food supply.
So “not approved for culinary use” does not mean “poisonous”. It means the substance has not been through the process that establishes whether, and at what dose, it is safe to swallow. The FDA reports no illnesses here, and that fits: this is a compliance failure, caught and corrected, not an outbreak.
It is a genuinely easy mistake for a small producer to make. Garlic essential oil is sold openly, it smells intensely of garlic, and it does the job a flavouring would do. The distinction lives in paperwork rather than on the shelf.
No lot number — and this time, that is correct
We spend a lot of time on this blog complaining that recall notices are impossible to match against the bottle in your hand. We have written about lot codes buried inside a combined label and about a recall published with no lot number at all. This notice also gives no lot code and no UPC. Here, that is the right call.
The wrong ingredient was not a stray contaminated batch. It was the recipe. Every bottle of this product made and sold across those twelve months used the same flavouring, so a lot code would divide a set that does not need dividing. The identifying information you need is the product name, the bottle, and the fact that you bought it — nothing finer.
That is the useful distinction. A missing lot code is a failure when the recall covers some of a product; it is simply accurate when it covers all of it.
Why a year-long sale window matters
Olive oil is not a product people finish quickly. A 500 ml bottle of a speciality infused oil is used a spoonful at a time, and unopened bottles keep for a year and a half or more. Combine that with a sale window running from August 2025 to August 2026, a market stall, a shop and a website, and a fair number of these bottles are still sitting in kitchen cupboards — including some given as gifts by people who will never see this notice.
If you shop at Findlay Market or bought from the Kofinas website in the past year, this is worth two minutes at the cupboard rather than a mental note.
What to do
Look for Kofinas Garlic Mediterranean Infused Extra Virgin Olive Oil in a 500 ml, 250 ml or 100 ml glass bottle. If you have one, stop using it. The company is offering full refunds and can be reached at 513-325-5502 or 513-981-1412. Other Kofinas oils are not covered by this recall — only the garlic Mediterranean infusion. No illnesses have been reported, but if you have had an allergic reaction or symptoms of foodborne illness after using it, contact a physician and mention the product.
Sources
- FDA — LMSI LLC / Kofinas Olive Oil issues a voluntary recall of its Garlic Mediterranean Infused Extra Virgin Olive Oil for using a garlic essential oil not approved for culinary use, August 31, 2026: fda.gov
- FDA — Food additives and ingredients: how substances are cleared for use in food: fda.gov
- FDA — Recalls, market withdrawals and safety alerts: fda.gov
Recall details — product, package sizes, sale period, locations and the stated reason — come from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s published recall notice. This article is independent consumer information; it is not affiliated with the FDA or the company named, whose name is used for identification purposes only. It is not medical advice.
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