It can be stated that olive oil is the food subject to the strictest regulation to guarantee its properties.
In fact, Virgin Olive Oil and Extra Virgin Olive Oil are the only agri-food products legally required to undergo an organoleptic assessment, where smell and taste are used to determine their commercial category and, in this way, distinguish Virgin Olive Oil from Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
For this, the intervention of a tasting panel is necessary through a procedure regulated by the IOC (International Olive Council), which carries out the organoleptic tasting based on a set of requirements such as the qualification, training, and skills of the tasters to ensure that the tests are as objective as possible and thus avoid unintentional errors.
These tests are mandatory in Europe and are regulated by the European Commission through a regulation that in Spain has been implemented through a Royal Decree establishing the regulatory standards for the composition of virgin olive oil tasting panels.
Following these criteria, packagers must label their oils in one category or another, which will be determined by the analyses of the tasting panel.
As a consequence, packagers, marketers, and exporters are responsible for the condition of the product once it has been packaged until the best-before date. This circumstance is very important, as Extra Virgin Olive Oil is a product whose qualities can be diminished if not stored under ideal conditions of temperature, light, and odors. In this regard, you can consult our blog post dedicated to the proper storage of Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
The consequences of poor storage can harm the image and prestige of the oils, hence the importance of strictly following the established recommendations, as what is actually the result of incorrect storage or handling can be mistakenly considered a manufacturing defect.
To prevent this eventuality, public administrations and producers work to implement measures that minimize this possibility. In fact, packaging and exporting companies of Extra Virgin Olive Oil recommend to their partners to increase control over oil purchases and require a higher level of quality from their suppliers at the time of acquisition, advising them to request a certificate that verifies the quality of the purchased oil. This document would indicate that the batches have undergone both physicochemical and organoleptic evaluation, through a laboratory and a tasting panel preferably authorized, as required by EU regulations, with the rating obtained for the sold and invoiced oil.
