»
«

New World Labs Release Latest Jab at Imported Olive Oils

Posted on April 13 2011 | Categorized in: World of Olive Oil

Print Friendly

By Olive Oil Times Staff | New York

In a redux of last Summer’s slamming of imported olive oils, the UC Davis Olive Center and the Australian Oils Research Laboratory have teamed up again to offer a critical assessment of the quality of some of America’s top-selling olive oil brands found on the supermarket shelves in California.

Olive Oil Report 2 | New World Labs Release Latest Jab at Imported Olive Oils | world olive oil basics features Today’s report, Evaluation of Extra-Virgin Olive Oil Sold in California, shows researchers took into account at least some of the criticism of last year’s methods by drawing a much larger sampling of top-selling imported olive oils and using tests accredited by the International Olive Council.

The imported olive oils tested were Colavita, Star, Bertolli, Filippo Berio, Pompeian and a premium brand, Lucini. They were compared to California Olive Ranch (COR) and Cobram Estate — the largest American and Australian olive oil producers.

The report concluded “laboratory tests found that the top-selling imported brands of ‘extra virgin’ olive oil sold in the United States and purchased at retail locations throughout California often failed the IOC’s sensory standards for extra virgin olive oil.”

It wasn’t all good news for Australia and California, though.  Eleven percent of the Californian, and all of the Australian olive oils failed the “PPP” (pyropheophytine) tests which indicated they were exposed to heat and light or adulterated with refined oils. In a statement on the California Olive Ranch website, Vice President of Marketing Claude S. Weiller expressed disappointment that two COR bottles failed the PPP test. ”Our investment in technology that allows us to identify the olives used to make our oil should help us understand what happened to the two bottles that didn’t pass muster”, he wrote.

The study was conducted by the University of California at Davis’ Olive Center which is supported by the California Olive Oil Council, whose members stand to gain from the discrediting of imported olive oil.  California olive oil producers provide about one percent of the olive oil consumed in the United States, but they are developing the capacity to supply much more than that.

It’s the latest chapter in what has become a contentious industry, increasingly divided into New and Old World producers pursuing an advantage to capture more of Americans’ growing appetite for olive oil.

See also: Olive Council Issues Harsh Response to Second Davis Study of Imported Olive Oils


Readers want to know what you think. Please leave a comment and share this article with your friends.

This article was last updated April 15, 2011 - 10:20 AM (GMT-4)

Tags: olive oil adulteration, olive oil research, olive oil standards, olive oil testing, UC Davis Olive Center
  • Anonymous

    This report makes the broad brush approach to the defects really frustrating. It seems that if an olive oil that almost certainly started its journey as extra virgin has arrived in the CA supermarket failing the PPP (I am talking here about the Cobram and COR samples because they are the ones I know) then we are looking a serious problem with our supply chain.

    I am guessing that those oils are both probably pretty modest in their polyphenol content. Does that mean they can’t stand up to the abuse that can be expected on the way to market? This begs the question: How do we protect olive oil on its way to the consumer? This is a big problem, everyone!

    There is a tendency to think it’s just the apologists for the big packers who bring this up, but it’s an issue for all olive oil producers. It is also frustrating when we don’t know what the defect was in a particular oil. There is a huge difference between a fusty oil (which was NEVER extra virgin) and a rancid oil (which might have been extra virgin when it was bottled but was abused somehow).

  • Ibl

    California producers have a good thing in UC Davis. I’m gonna get me a university.

    • Lori Konstantopoulos

      Yep, let’s call a spade a spade.

  • Terry

    So what’s Australia doing with their olive oil? ALL of the Cobram samples failed tests that show it was exposed to light and air, or it was mixed with who knows what.