Congressional Bill Would Require Federal Definition for Olive Oil Labels

Summary

Lawmakers in Congress are propos­ing the Olive Oil Standards Act, which would require the FDA to estab­lish national stan­dards for olive oil label­ing to pro­tect con­sumers and the indus­try. The bill aims to address the lack of a national stan­dard, which has led to enforce­ment chal­lenges and label­ing con­cerns in the olive oil indus­try, and would incor­po­rate addi­tional ana­lyt­i­cal para­me­ters beyond inter­na­tional stan­dards to improve qual­ity con­trol.

Lawmakers in the U.S. Congress are push­ing a bipar­ti­san bill that would require fed­eral stan­dards for what can be labeled as olive oil, a move sup­port­ers say would strengthen con­sumer pro­tec­tion and indus­try over­sight.

The pro­posed Olive Oil Standards Act, intro­duced by Representatives David Valadao and Josh Harder, would require the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to estab­lish a national stan­dard of iden­tity for olive oil and olive pomace oil. According to the bill’s pro­mot­ers, the mea­sure would move the United States closer to reg­u­la­tory frame­works already in place in most major olive oil-pro­duc­ing and con­sum­ing coun­tries.

Without a fed­eral stan­dard of iden­tity, sup­port­ers argue, the FDA has lim­ited tools to pur­sue enforce­ment actions related to mis­la­bel­ing or mis­lead­ing qual­ity claims.

“This stems from the peti­tion for a stan­dard of iden­tity that was filed in 2022,” Joseph Profaci, chief exec­u­tive offi­cer of the North American Olive Oil Association, told Olive Oil Times. ​“We have been active in try­ing to per­suade FDA to act on the peti­tion, and each year we have worked with Congress to include lan­guage in appro­pri­a­tions that would encour­age FDA to move for­ward. Each year, it hasn’t hap­pened.”

The new bill takes a dif­fer­ent approach. Rather than urg­ing or encour­ag­ing reg­u­la­tory action, it would legally require the FDA to estab­lish a stan­dard.

“This is effec­tively a way to increase the pres­sure and, by law, require it to be estab­lished,” Profaci said.

The 2022 peti­tion to FDA, avail­able in .pdf for­mat, was filed jointly by the North American Olive Oil Association, the American Olive Oil Producers Association and the Deoleo com­pany.

“We have been work­ing on this both indi­vid­u­ally and col­lec­tively,” Profaci said. ​“Not always together, but some­times together.”

The American Olive Oil Producers Association cited trans­parency and fair­ness as key goals of the pro­posed leg­is­la­tion.

“When enacted, it will ensure that what is on the label is in the bot­tle and that the health ben­e­fits and value of extra vir­gin olive oil are pre­served for all,” said AOPA pres­i­dent and chief exec­u­tive offi­cer Kimberly Houlding in a state­ment.

Unlike many other food prod­ucts, olive oil in the United States does not have a nation­ally enforce­able def­i­n­i­tion cov­er­ing qual­ity grades, label­ing terms or com­po­si­tional para­me­ters. A small num­ber of states, includ­ing California, have adopted their own stan­dards, but these apply only within state bor­ders.

The absence of a national frame­work has had prac­ti­cal con­se­quences.

“As an asso­ci­a­tion, we brought a legal action against a com­pany that our test­ing pro­gram found to be in vio­la­tion of stan­dards,” Profaci said. ​“But because there was no national stan­dard, we were con­strained to file the law­suit in one of the four states that cur­rently have an olive oil stan­dard.”

According to Profaci, a fed­eral stan­dard would not only facil­i­tate enforce­ment by FDA but would also strengthen the industry’s abil­ity to address unfair prac­tices.

The pro­posed leg­is­la­tion also refers to ana­lyt­i­cal para­me­ters beyond those cur­rently required by the International Olive Council, whose stan­dards form a global frame­work for olive oil pro­duc­tion and trade.

The bill explic­itly ref­er­ences pyropheo­phytins and dia­cyl­glyc­erols, com­monly known as PPP and DAGs.

“These are para­me­ters not cur­rently in the IOC stan­dard but which are included in the California stan­dard for oils pro­duced in California,” Profaci said.

PPP lev­els can indi­cate heat dam­age, aging or deodor­iza­tion, while DAG ratios can reveal improper stor­age or pro­cess­ing. Supporters argue that incor­po­rat­ing these mea­sures would improve the abil­ity to dis­tin­guish fresh extra vir­gin olive oil from prod­ucts that have dete­ri­o­rated or been manip­u­lated.

Profaci noted that the pro­posed fed­eral stan­dard draws directly from California’s expe­ri­ence, adapt­ing it to a national con­text.

The goal, sup­port­ers say, is not to cre­ate new bur­dens but to for­mal­ize prac­tices already fol­lowed by most respon­si­ble oper­a­tors.

“Our test­ing pro­gram from 2024 found greater than 99 per­cent com­pli­ance with stan­dards on adul­ter­ation,” Profaci said. ​“By and large, the indus­try is already com­ply­ing with the key ele­ments of that stan­dard.”

AOPA framed the leg­is­la­tion as a con­sumer-focused mea­sure rather than a trade pro­tec­tion tool.

“Standards of iden­tity are pro­mul­gated by the FDA in the inter­est of con­sumers and our grow­ers and pro­duc­ers across the U.S.,” Houlding said.

The large vol­ume of olive oil imports into the United States has also height­ened atten­tion to the need for tighter con­trols to address mis­la­bel­ing, adul­ter­ation, and qual­ity degra­da­tion dur­ing ship­ping and stor­age.

“In the past, most of the enforce­ment effort to pro­tect the mar­ket from fraud or unfair busi­ness prac­tices has been under­taken by the indus­try itself,” Profaci said. ​“We were hin­dered by the lack of a national stan­dard.”

Supporters say some label­ing con­cerns would also be resolved. ​“There con­tinue to be some label­ing con­cerns,” Profaci added. ​“This would help bring peo­ple in line, to the ben­e­fit of the con­sumer.”

The bill could also influ­ence dis­cus­sions at the Codex Alimentarius Commission, which is con­sid­er­ing whether to incor­po­rate PPP and DAGs into global olive oil norms.

“The Codex deter­mi­na­tion could be a year, even two years from now,” Profaci said. ​“This bill could speed up the time­line.”

The leg­is­la­tion would direct the FDA to base its stan­dard on the exist­ing peti­tion rather than wait­ing for inter­na­tional con­sen­sus.

“I think more than the bipar­ti­san back­ing, what mat­ters is what’s hap­pen­ing in con­nec­tion with the Make America Healthy Again agenda,” Profaci said, refer­ring to broader polit­i­cal atten­tion on diet-related health out­comes.

For both NAOOA and AOPA, the bill rep­re­sents the cul­mi­na­tion of years of advo­cacy.

“We’ll see con­sump­tion growth, and in turn, we’ll see addi­tional invest­ments and growth in the domes­tic olive oil indus­try,” Houlding said.

Profaci described the leg­is­la­tion as a struc­tural cor­rec­tion rather than a dra­matic over­haul.

“This is really the next step that’s needed,” he said. ​“To pro­tect the con­sumer and bring clar­ity to the mar­ket.”