Olive Oil Academy Expands Training in Northern Europe

Christianne Noordermeer Van Loo’s interest in olive oil began after she and her husband bought a house with a neglected olive grove in Umbria.

“We did not know anything about olive trees,” she said. “We wanted the house and the land around it, yet we did not know what to do with the olive grove.”

After the grove was cleared and returned to production, she began harvesting the olives and learning more about cultivation, milling and sensory evaluation.

Noordermeer Van Loo later attended the Olive Oil Times Sommelier Certification Program in London and pursued additional sensory training in Spain and Italy.

Today, she is a certified olive oil sommelier, a professional olive oil and table olive taster and the executive director of The Olive Oil Academy in the Netherlands.

Her work focuses largely on addressing what she sees as a lack of familiarity with extra virgin olive oil among consumers and food professionals in Northern Europe.

She said many consumers have not developed the sensory references commonly associated with olive oil-producing countries and may interpret bitterness and pungency as undesirable.

“One of the most prominent knowledge gaps is the idea that ‘mild’ olive oil is the best olive oil you can get,” Noordermeer Van Loo said. “People do not know that bitterness and pungency are not defects but positive qualities.”

Other common gaps involve freshness, storage, food pairing and the reasons for substantial price differences between olive oils.

“Olive oil is juice, like orange juice,” she said. “It will be affected by light, warmth and oxygen, but people do not know it.”

Noordermeer Van Loo believes consumers are more likely to value olive oil when they understand its producer, cultivar, origin, production methods and sensory characteristics.

She compares the sector’s development in Northern Europe with the gradual growth of consumer knowledge about wine and coffee.

That approach informs the programs developed by The Olive Oil Academy, including its collaboration with the Olive Oil Times Education Lab.

The second European edition of the Olive Oil Sommelier Certification Program will be held from September 14 to 18, 2026, at the Jamfabriek in ’s-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands.

The five-day course, limited to 30 participants, covers sensory assessment, olive cultivation and milling, health and nutrition, culinary applications, quality control, packaging, labeling and European regulations.

Participants will taste more than 100 olive oils from producing regions worldwide and take part in practical food-pairing exercises in a professional kitchen.

The program also includes an aroma table with ingredients such as ripe bananas, avocados, artichokes, pepper and rosemary, intended to help participants develop a broader sensory vocabulary.

The Academy also encourages participants to continue practicing after completing the course through annual meetings and access to a network of instructors and other professionals.

An online Taster’s Club allows trained sommeliers to evaluate the same samples during sessions led by experienced panel leaders and instructors.

Noordermeer Van Loo said continued practice is important because sensory recognition and vocabulary can diminish when they are not regularly used. Group tastings also demonstrate how cultural experience can influence the perception of an olive oil.

For participants seeking further training, the Academy will hold The Curator’s Tasting on September 12 and 13, 2026, at the Jamfabriek.

The two-day program will examine the factors associated with high-quality extra virgin olive oil, with sessions on laboratory analysis, milling technology, volatile compounds, food pairing and the communication of health attributes.

The Academy has also developed an online course on the structure and economics of the olive oil sector, as well as training for chefs, restaurants and culinary schools.

“High-end restaurants generally know more about olive oil and how to use it,” Noordermeer Van Loo said. “In mainstream restaurants, there is still a real lack of knowledge.”

She said similar challenges remain in retail, where products promoted as mild continue to dominate many supermarket shelves and higher-quality oils are more commonly found through specialist shops and online sellers.

Noordermeer Van Loo expects interest in olive oil to continue growing in Northern Europe but said education will be necessary to translate increased consumption into greater appreciation of quality.

“The issue is communication and information,” she said. “We need to educate consumers, retailers and everyone involved.”