The quality level of the oils must be raised

Extra virgin olive oil, like other food products are sources of manipulation in order to achieve lower prices or higher margins. A new investigation carried out in the United States corroborates these facts that continue to happen.

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Adulterated olive oils

In a new study conducted by researchers at the Olive Olive Center at the University of Davis in California, numerous samples of olive oil were collected and sold in restaurants and service chains in California. They were then analyzed to discover the authenticity and quality of these olive oils.

All of them passed a chemical test carried out by the United States Government but many of them did not pass the tasting test. The results clearly showed that 10 percent of these olive oils were adulterated, according to the researchers in this study.

Based on these findings, the researchers in the study recommended that restaurants and service chains improve olive oil quality control protocols. The researchers also recommended that the U.S. Department of Agriculture perform more effective and demanding quality tests on extra virgin olive oil.

“The results of this study have clearly shown that efforts to control the quality of olive oil served in restaurants and other service chains are very poor,” said Dan Flynn, executive director of the Olivar Center at the University of California, Davis, and co-author of the study.

He also added, “What is clear is that the chemical test is independent of the tasting test, and an olive oil can pass one and the other can’t.” But for it to be an extra virgin olive oil, it has to pass both tests.

Flynn also realised that these results were similar to other analyses carried out by the Olive Grove Centre itself of olive oils sold in California supermarkets and carried out in 2010 and 2011.

More studies on olive oil confirm this

This new study was conducted by Selina Wang, research director of the Olive Grove Center at the University of Davis in California and Edwin Frankel, scientist, advisor and one of the world’s leading authorities on oils used in food and related products.

This study evaluated 21 brands of olive oil sold in restaurants and service chains, including 15 labelled as “extra virgin”, i.e., the highest quality olive oil. The other six olive oils were not labelled as extra virgin.

All olive oil samples were sent to the Australian National Oils Laboratory where they performed a sensory and chemical test on each olive oil. Samples were also taken to tasting panels in Spain and Italy. The chemical tests analysed the chemical composition of the oils, while the tasting panels evaluated the taste, smell, aroma and texture of each olive oil.

All the analyses were carried out with “blind” tests, in which the laboratory and the sensory tasters did not know the name of the brand or the origin of the country of the oils they evaluated.

The results of the chemical and sensory tests indicated the following:

• All but one of the olive oils passed U.S. chemical quality controls.
• Despite this, nine (60 percent) of the samples collected did not pass the quality controls to be categorized as extra virgin olive oil, criteria that food distributors rarely use in olive oil selection.
• The most common defects found in the flavors and aromas of olive oil were: ranceidad, mold flavor, and moisture odor. Some of these olive oils analyzed by the tasting panel were of such low quality that they were categorized as lampante olive oils, which are not allowed for sale to the public and must be treated with the refining process in order to be consumed.
• These nine oils did not pass the chemical quality controls due to a component diacylglycerol. A new quality veremo adopted by the Australian Olive Association for extra virgin olive oil.
• The chemical analysis indicated that one of the 15 samples labelled as extra virgin olive oil and one of the six samples not labelled as extra virgin had been adulterated with a cheap and refined oil.