The evolution experienced by the food sector in the last ten years bas greatly changed the models analysts employ to explore the purchase and consumption patterns of the post-industrial society. Nowhere is this more evident than in urban food markets, where consumers are furthest removed from the food production processes. New consumption patterns are based partly on undifferentiated food products and partly on typical ones, which are often characterised by a close link to specific geographical areas and their local traditions in food production. These changes have induced a major transformation of the EU food policy, whose regulations have increasingly been aimed at protecting and boosting the value of such 'typical' products. However, 'typicity' is difficult to assess on the part of consumers, who need to rely on labelling and certification, on which EU regulation is not very strict. Exemplary is the case of extra-virgin olive oil. Olive oil bottlers are not required to report the olives' production areas on the commercial label, thus having the possibility of inducing the false belief that product is strictly Italian by stating that it is the product 'of an Italian brand' or that it has been bottled in Italy. In this paper we assess the effects of such false beliefs through estimation of a choice, on data collected by a survey of 169 Italian consumers interviewed after their purchase of extra-virgin olive oil in a supermarket.