New Research to Study Impact of Soil Health on Olive Oil Quality

The first sig­nif­i­cant inves­ti­ga­tion on the soil qual­ity of olive groves across the Mediterranean basin has been under­taken by a group of European research insti­tu­tions and large olive oil pro­duc­ers.

Backed by the European Union, the Soil O‑live project will ana­lyze the impact of land degra­da­tion and pol­lu­tion on olive groves over the next five years.

The project will also inves­ti­gate the impact of olive groves on bio­di­ver­sity and eco­log­i­cal func­tion and study the link between soil and olive oil qual­ity and safety.

The E.U. and the University of Jaén, which is coor­di­nat­ing the ini­tia­tive, have signed the €7 mil­lion research agree­ment, which is part of the Horizon E.U. research pro­grams.

“After more than 50 years of inten­sive agri­cul­ture appli­ca­tion, the envi­ron­men­tal sit­u­a­tion for many olive groves across the Mediterranean region is quite dra­matic in terms of land degra­da­tion, bio­di­ver­sity impov­er­ish­ment and func­tion­al­ity loss, which may have already impacted the qual­ity and safety of olive oil, one of the most impor­tant com­modi­ties pro­duced in Europe,” the project intro­duc­tion reads.

By deploy­ing a multi-dis­ci­pli­nary approach extended to all sig­nif­i­cant olive-pro­duc­ing coun­tries, the project ​“will per­form the first rig­or­ous diag­nos­tic of the envi­ron­men­tal sit­u­a­tion of olive grove soils at a broad scale, con­sid­er­ing the most impor­tant areas of olive pro­duc­tion in the Mediterranean region and its rela­tion­ships to olive oil qual­ity.”

Assessing soil qual­ity and the ten­den­cies asso­ci­ated with inten­sive agri­cul­ture are con­sid­ered cru­cial for their impact on food sys­tems and food secu­rity.

The sub­se­quent steps of the Soil O‑live project will focus on restor­ing soil and eco­log­i­cal func­tion, fos­ter­ing bio­di­ver­sity and improv­ing the olive grove health through­out the region. Its sup­port­ers believe these steps will trans­late into an improve­ment for the final prod­uct.

The last step of the research will cen­ter on the def­i­n­i­tion of ​“rig­or­ous eco­log­i­cal thresh­olds that allow imple­ment­ing future clear norms and reg­u­la­tions to design a novel cer­ti­fi­ca­tion for healthy soils in European olive groves.”

The project will bring together researchers from sev­eral fields of inves­ti­ga­tion, such as envi­ron­men­tal sci­ences, bio­log­i­cal sci­ences and ecol­ogy, agri­cul­ture and forestry.

Apart from the olive and olive oil research depart­ment at the University of Jaén, dozens of research insti­tu­tions from Portugal, Italy, Greece, Poland, Germany, Switzerland and Morocco will also par­tic­i­pate in the project.

Deoleo, the world’s largest olive oil-pro­duc­ing and bot­tling com­pany, is also par­tic­i­pat­ing in the inves­ti­ga­tion.

• Diario Jaén
• Oleum Xauen