Spanish Premium Olive Oils to Carry New Health-Focused Certification

Many premium olive oils in Spain will soon be audited for their quality not only at the time of production and bottling, but throughout their commercial life — all the way to the best-before date.

The initiative is part of a new certification launched by QvExtra!, an association of premium extra virgin olive oil producers. The group hopes to give new visibility to health claims already authorized by the European Union while helping consumers identify oils that maintain specific quality and health-related characteristics over time.

The new mark, known as Corazón SIQEV, will initially be used by 36 Spanish brands and is designed to identify extra virgin olive oils eligible to communicate E.U.-authorized health claims related to antioxidant protection, cholesterol management, and cardiovascular health.

For years, the olive oil sector has struggled to communicate scientifically recognized health benefits in a way that consumers can easily understand. The gap between what science knows and what reaches the shelf has proved surprisingly difficult to close.

“European food labeling legislation is very demanding, and rightly so because its purpose is to protect consumers from potentially misleading messages,” Herminia Millán, manager of QvExtra!, told Olive Oil Times. “However, we had been facing a significant challenge for years: how to translate into labeling, in a clear, simple and understandable way, what scientific evidence had already demonstrated about the health benefits of extra virgin olive oil.”

According to Millán, consumers often remain unaware not only of the health benefits associated with extra virgin olive oil but also of the significant differences that may exist between products sold under the same category. She argued the problem runs in two directions.

“On one hand, consumers do not always know exactly which health benefits we are talking about, or whether they can be associated with any olive oil,” she said. “On the other hand, the sector itself had difficulty turning legal texts authorized by the European Union into a useful message for the label.”

It was precisely this communication gap that led to the creation of Corazón SIQEV. The new label does not stand on its own: it is built upon the broader SIQEV certification system, developed by QvExtra! in 2014 to ensure that certified oils maintain high quality standards throughout their shelf life rather than only at the time of bottling.

“What distinguishes Corazón SIQEV is that it does not merely identify oils that comply with one of these requirements,” Millán said. “It requires the simultaneous fulfillment of all the parameters established for using the mark. That is an essential requirement.”

QvExtra! developed the certification after concluding that oils meeting IOC standards at bottling could still undergo significant deterioration before reaching consumers.

The parameters extend well beyond the minimum standards required for extra virgin olive oil under International Olive Council rules. Taken together, the requirements cover every major dimension of olive oil quality — from freshness and oxidation resistance to sensory profile, nutritional composition, and purity.

One example is acidity, a key indicator of the condition of olives before processing. While the IOC allows up to 0.8 percent acidity for extra virgin olive oil, SIQEV-certified oils must remain below 0.4 percent even at the end of their commercial life. Oils entering the program typically begin with acidity levels below 0.15 percent.

The certification also imposes stricter limits on peroxide values, which measure the primary stages of oxidation. SIQEV requires a maximum peroxide value of 15 milliequivalents of active oxygen per kilogram at the best-before date, compared with the IOC limit of 20.

Tighter limits are also set for K270 and K232 — two ultraviolet absorbance measurements commonly used to evaluate oxidation and degradation — where lower values indicate fresher oils that have undergone less deterioration. The program additionally requires low levels of moisture and impurities, both of which can accelerate degradation during storage, as well as strict limits on ethyl esters, compounds often associated with poor-quality fruit or fermentation defects.

Another requirement concerns fatty acid composition. SIQEV-certified oils must contain at least 65 percent oleic acid and more than 70 percent unsaturated fatty acids overall, reinforcing the nutritional profile that underpins many of olive oil’s recognized health benefits.

Perhaps the most striking sensory requirement involves fruitiness. While IOC standards require only the absence of sensory defects and a fruitiness score above zero, SIQEV-certified oils must exceed four points at production and remain above two points at the best-before date.

The certification also addresses pesticide residues, requiring their complete absence even in conventionally produced oils.

“SIQEV extra virgin olive oils must be residue free, whether they are organic or conventional,” Millán explained.

The health component of the certification focuses primarily on bioactive compounds such as polyphenols and vitamin E. Polyphenols have attracted growing scientific attention because of their antioxidant activity and their role in the E.U.-authorized health claim stating that olive oil polyphenols contribute to the protection of blood lipids from oxidative stress. Yet the claim has practical value only if those compounds remain present when the oil reaches consumers.

Under the Corazón SIQEV system, extra virgin olive oils must maintain at least 250 milligrams of biophenols per kilogram at the best-before date. Producers generally begin at significantly higher levels to ensure this threshold is met.

“In the case of SIQEV, we work precisely with that permanence approach,” Millán said. “The extra virgin olive oils start from levels clearly above the minimum requirements so that they can still maintain the thresholds required by the regulations at the end of their commercial life.”

“For example, SIQEV extra virgin olive oils present on average more than 400 parts per million of biophenols at the time of bottling,” she added. “This allows us to ensure that at the best-before date they still remain around the 250 parts per million required.”

SIQEV also requires minimum vitamin E levels of 1.8 milligrams per 100 grams at the best-before date, supporting the E.U.-authorized claim that vitamin E contributes to the protection of cells from oxidative stress.

Rather than relying solely on laboratory analyses performed before commercialization, QvExtra! contracts SGS — the international inspection and certification company — to conduct independent audits approximately one year after certification. Bottles are purchased directly from retail shelves, analyzed independently, and compared against the program’s established standards. The certification process does not end at the factory door.

“We are not only talking about meeting certain minimum standards at the moment of bottling,” Millán said. “We are demonstrating to consumers that these properties are maintained and rigorously monitored by an independent certification body until the end of the product’s commercial life.”

The initiative reflects a broader effort to shift the conversation about extra virgin olive oil away from price and toward measurable quality and health attributes.

“We hope consumers understand that not all vegetable oils are the same and that the difference is not only in the declared category, but also in the ability to demonstrate and maintain objective standards of quality and health properties from bottling to the best-before date,” Millán said.

“It is striking that other vegetable fats, such as avocado oil, have managed to position themselves in consumers’ minds as particularly healthy products, while extra virgin olive oil — with a much stronger scientific foundation — continues to be dragged into a market logic marked almost exclusively by price,” she said.

“The future of the sector cannot be built on the trivialization of the product or on competition based solely on price. Extra virgin olive oil should not be treated as a commodity because its true potential lies in the differential value it provides in terms of quality, sensory profile, and health benefits,” Millán concluded.