`Study Links €1.1 B in Losses to Tasting-Panel Variability in Spain - Olive Oil Times
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Study Links €1.1 B in Losses to Tasting-Panel Variability in Spain

By Daniel Dawson
Dec. 4, 2025 02:43 UTC
Summary Summary

A study by Vilcon found that incon­sis­ten­cies in organolep­tic assess­ments have cost Spanish olive grow­ers over €1 bil­lion in the past decade, with one-fifth of offi­cially cer­ti­fied extra vir­gin olive oil sam­ples being down­graded with­out physic­o­chem­i­cal jus­ti­fi­ca­tion. The researchers rec­om­mended reforms to panel test­ing, includ­ing the inte­gra­tion of new tech­nolo­gies like the elec­tronic nose and arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence, to reduce sub­jec­tiv­ity and ensure that the added value of extra vir­gin olive oil ben­e­fits the olive grow­ers.

New research from the agribusi­ness con­sul­tancy Vilcon has attempted to quan­tify the finan­cial toll that incon­sis­ten­cies in organolep­tic assess­ments take on olive grow­ers.

The goal is to reduce sub­jec­tiv­ity, strengthen the sector’s legal cer­tainty and ensure that the added value of extra vir­gin olive oil truly reaches those who pro­duce it.- Researchers, Vilcon

Vilcon esti­mated that Spanish farm­ers have lost more than €1 bil­lion over the past decade due to vari­abil­ity among tast­ing pan­els.

The study found that dif­fer­ences among pan­els when clas­si­fy­ing extra vir­gin olive oil led to more than one-fifth of offi­cially cer­ti­fied extra vir­gin sam­ples being down­graded to a lower cat­e­gory with­out physic­o­chem­i­cal jus­ti­fi­ca­tion.

“Even though the panel test is a nec­es­sary ele­ment, it is urgent to imple­ment a series of improve­ments to avoid this mar­gin of error, which pri­mar­ily affects ances­tral vari­eties such as Picual and bor­der­line extra vir­gin olive oils, always neg­a­tively,” said Juan Vilar, Vilcon’s chief exec­u­tive.

“The diverse behav­ior of the same vari­ety in dif­fer­ent parts of the world, and the con­stant emer­gence of new vari­eties, also have a neg­a­tive impact. Both fac­tors demand con­stant and rig­or­ous train­ing for pan­elists,” he added.

Olive oil is among the few food cat­e­gories in which sen­sory analy­sis deter­mines com­mer­cial clas­si­fi­ca­tion. The International Olive Council estab­lished the offi­cial organolep­tic guide­lines in 1980, which were later adopted into European Union law.

A panel of at least eight trained tasters eval­u­ates each sam­ple for pos­i­tive attrib­utes — fruiti­ness, bit­ter­ness, and pun­gency — and neg­a­tive ones such as fusti­ness, musti­ness and ran­cid­ity. The panel leader records the final result using the median of all assess­ments.

“Unlike physic­o­chem­i­cal analy­ses, which deter­mine objec­tive para­me­ters such as free acid­ity, per­ox­ide value, or phe­no­lic com­pound con­tent, the panel test makes it pos­si­ble to iden­tify sen­sory per­cep­tions deci­sive for clas­si­fi­ca­tion and not detectable with cur­rent instru­men­tal meth­ods,” the researchers wrote.

While the valid­ity of panel test­ing is broadly rec­og­nized, con­cerns over inter-panel incon­sis­tency have per­sisted for years.

In 2018, the Spanish bot­tlers’ and exporters’ asso­ci­a­tions Anierac and Asoliva com­mis­sioned a PricewaterhouseCoopers study that reported a 30 per­cent vari­abil­ity in extra vir­gin clas­si­fi­ca­tions among dif­fer­ent pan­els.

PwC con­cluded that organolep­tic assess­ment, as cur­rently prac­ticed, was an ​“inap­pro­pri­ate qual­ity con­trol mech­a­nism that vio­lates the most ele­men­tal prin­ci­ples of the Spanish legal sys­tem.”

For its inves­ti­ga­tion, Vilcon hired a notary pub­lic to pre­pare 36 coded sam­ples, which were sent to 28 International Olive Council-approved lab­o­ra­to­ries in mul­ti­ple coun­tries.

Researchers found that seven of 33 sam­ples offi­cially clas­si­fied as extra vir­gin were down­graded to vir­gin after panel test­ing. The remain­der were con­firmed as extra vir­gin.

“In sam­ples located near the lower thresh­old of the extra vir­gin cat­e­gory, nearly half of the assess­ments issued by dif­fer­ent pan­els resulted in a down­grade to vir­gin, despite offi­cial analy­ses cer­ti­fy­ing them as extra vir­gin,” the researchers wrote. ​“This empir­i­cally con­firms that bor­der­line oils are par­tic­u­larly sen­si­tive to inter-panel vari­abil­ity.”

“By con­trast, oils with high fruiti­ness, a clean pro­file and no defects show very high clas­si­fi­ca­tion sta­bil­ity, with near-com­plete agree­ment among lab­o­ra­to­ries,” they added. ​“However, dif­fer­ences in nuances may still lead to price vari­a­tions.”

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Because sen­sory clas­si­fi­ca­tion deter­mines com­mer­cial price, the researchers warned that these incon­sis­ten­cies inflict sig­nif­i­cant finan­cial harm on farm­ers, millers and coop­er­a­tives.

Using Spain’s annual aver­age pro­duc­tion of 616,075 tons of extra vir­gin olive oil, 487,644 tons of vir­gin and 283,284 tons of lam­pante, they esti­mated that roughly 170,000 tons of extra vir­gin may be mis­clas­si­fied as vir­gin due to panel vari­abil­ity.

Based on aver­age annual prices between 2015 and 2025, the researchers cal­cu­lated that tens to hun­dreds of mil­lions of Euros were lost each year, amount­ing to €1.148 bil­lion over the decade.

They said pro­duc­ers felt the impact espe­cially sharply in recent years, when prices at ori­gin surged to record highs. Estimated losses reached €188 mil­lion in 2023, €246 mil­lion in 2024 and €155 mil­lion in 2025.

Given these find­ings, the researchers called for reforms to panel test­ing, includ­ing the inte­gra­tion of new tech­nolo­gies such as the elec­tronic nose, spec­troscopy, chro­matog­ra­phy and arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence, along with an updated ref­er­ence data­base.

The authors argued that these tools would allow ​“objec­tive, repeat­able and rapid analy­ses” capa­ble of detect­ing min­i­mal defects, reduc­ing human error and eas­ing the bur­den on tast­ing pan­els.

“These tech­nolo­gies do not replace the human panel, but they con­sti­tute indis­pens­able sup­port to pro­vide the sys­tem with tech­ni­cal rigor,” they wrote.

“The goal is to reduce sub­jec­tiv­ity, strengthen the sector’s legal cer­tainty and ensure that the added value of extra vir­gin olive oil truly reaches those who pro­duce it: the olive grower,” they con­cluded.

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