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The “Mediterranean diet”, now recognised as the healthiest and most complete and awarded with the recognition of “intangible heritage of humanity”, has in extra virgin olive oil its true symbol used as the best source of fat to cook and season raw food, especially in the recipes of Italians, so much to make it the longest-lived people in the world, together with Japanese people. Unfortunately, the average quality of extra virgin olive oil in Italy is often not so good, and there are many reasons for this. Among these, the most important are:
- In the vast majority of oils on the market there is the presence of foreign oil (especially, Spanish oils) of poor quality;
- Consumers have a poor knowledge of quality oil and often do not appreciate its characteristics, not only about taste, but also about health;
- The higher cost of Italian quality extra virgin olive oil, due to many factors, which discourages its purchase.
But what kind of oil do we find on the market?
On the market in large retailers throughout Europe, including Italy, we find extra virgin olive oil, even of large-scale and well-known brands, not only the low-cost ones that are sold in “discounts”, which is a mixture of Italian, EU, and Extra-EU oils. Olives come from large producers and growers in the Mediterranean area: Spain, Turkey, Greece, Italy, and Tunisia. Sometimes olives are imported and oil is produced in Italy, but much more often the oil is imported directly with large tanks, and we do not know which the guarantees of the organoleptic qualities of the product is. Spanish olive oil is always present because Spain produces a very high-quality extra virgin olive oil at very competitive prices thanks to the intensive and mechanised cultivation of their producers. Moreover, large Italian oil brands are now owned by Spanish oil giants.
Spanish oil present in these products is obtained from a particular type of olive: the “Picual”, which gives the oil a very intense and peculiar aroma of ripe olive, phenolic, chemical that is not so pleasant. The oil produced from Picual with quality criteria is, however, interesting, but certainly when you prefer aiming at large quantities, quality precipitates and the aromas become unpleasant, sometimes similar to the aroma of fusty, a typical defect in low quality oils.
For this reason, European oils (imported in Italy and marketed as Italian) are strongly characterised by Spanish Picual olive.
Unfortunately, in addition to taste aspects, in the extra virgin olive oil present in European markets, there are also organoleptic defect, as mentioned before.
In order to be classified as extra virgin, an oil must be free from organoleptic defects well identified and recognised by trained tasters. These defects are 4: heating, mould, rancid, and sludge. An analysis carried out in 2011 by the customs office found defects in more than half of the oils made up of mixture of EU oils, purchased in supermarkets. Consequently, more than half of oils present in our supermarkets could not boast of the label “extra virgin”.
So, how can we recognise a quality extra virgin olive oil?
The organoleptic characteristics of extra virgin olive oil are quite simple: it must have an aroma of green olive with an herbaceous smell, cut grass, raw artichoke. Sometimes there are more complex aromas such as green tomato, almond or apple. If these characteristics are not present, it is likely that we are facing with low quality oils or even with heating.
When you taste an oil (in this Blog we dedicated a separate article on this topic; ndr), its taste must be at least a little bitter and spicy, typical characteristic of polyphenols that, besides protecting extra virgin olive oil from oxidation, are the substances that produce benefits to our health. However, bitterness and spiciness are often two characteristics which are not appreciated by consumers accustomed to the poor quality of low-cost oils on supermarket shelves…
Many consumers, having friends or acquaintances who own small olive plantations, often buy extra virgin olive oil directly from the “farmer”. But they are not always quality oils, more often these productions have defects because small producers, since they do not own a milling plant, have to book it at a mill, so, the period of 12/24 hours from harvest will not be respected and olives could lie for days or weeks before being pressed. This will result in a poor oil which does not respond to the production rules in order to define an “Extra virgin olive” oil. Then we would rather better not to trust a priori; we would better go and taste it first, but even better if we buy extra virgin olive oil from producers who own plants and can produce oil respecting harvesting/ milling times.
How to buy quality extra virgin olive oil?
Today there are quality certifications that guarantee our purchases. PDO, for example, with 100% Italian Designation of Origins, or PGI (Protected Geographical Indication) inform us about the origin of certain olives and their specific characteristics, having to pass specific checks in order to receive such recognition.
An extra virgin olive oil cannot have a price lower than 8/9 € per litre, but those of superior quality often exceed 12/15 €. Some of them go even further because they use special techniques with pitted olives and therefore with higher production costs and also because they have limited product quantities. It would be useful to consume extra virgin olive oil with a lower price for cooking and the one with a higher cost as a dressing for raw salads, meat, fish, etc.
We often classify oils for their regional origin, but the quality and taste of an extra virgin olive oil depends mainly on the "Cultivar", that is the type of olives from which it is obtained. In Italy today there are more than 650 varieties (an all-Italian record that differentiates us from other countries in the world and gives us an excellent quality) and for this reason small producers who supply us extra virgin olive oils from monoculture are to be preferred, often PDO or PGI, sometimes even organic, maybe with international identifications and awards.
So, be careful to labels, do not trust too low prices and definitely choose Italian extra virgin olive oil.