California olive oil gets ‘extra virgin’ certification
Fresno, Calif. (AP) – Consumers wandering the olive oil aisle these days can be forgiven a certain amount of confusion. Labels extol the qualities of oils that are light, with sage, without chemicals, cold-pressed, organic, or just plain pure. The most expensive bottles often carry the label "extra virgin," but how can anyone be sure the oil inside is the real thing?
"It’s very confusing," admitted Alfred Katz, president of the California Olive Oil Council, which represents about 90 percent of the state’s producers.
The words extra virgin have often been used on oils of lesser virtue, Katz said. But starting with this year’s crop, which is now being picked and pressed, the council has made quality testing mandatory for its members. Only oils that pass an acidity test as well as a subjective taste test will be considered real extra virgins.
Most producers welcome the requirement, seeing it as a guarantee for consumers and a protection against unscrupulous interlopers.
After all, extra-virgin olive oil isn’t just good oil. It’s cold pressed from freshly harvested olives, the rich and fruity pinnacle atop a slippery slope that ends in vats of tasteless, heat extracted and chemically processed goop. Since consumers are often asked to plunk down $10, $20 or more for a little bottle of the stuff, they understandably want labels that consumers can trust.
"There are no enforceable labeling standards in the United States," said Katz. "Whether you call your oil extra virgin, perfect virgin, virgin this or that, the government will not get involved in enforcing that."
There is an international organization based in Madrid, Spain, that regulates the quality of oil abroad, but domestic producers weren’t forced by any rules until the COOC started its seal program, proposing to put the little stamp bearing an olive branch and the words "California Olive Oil Council, Certified Extra Virgin," on qualifying oils.
All the Food and Drug Administration requires is that bottlers show where the oil came from. And the last time the U.S. Department of Agriculture looked at olive oils was right after WWII, when they graded olive oils using old-fashioned terms like "choice" or "fancy," decades before California fell for the boutique olive oils stocking shelves today.
Connoisseurs today are differentiating between oils produced from Greek Kalamatas, the common Mission or Manzanillo, the Italian Frantoio, or a host of other hard to pronounce varieties. Some are even searching for the subtle effects of climate and soil on the flavor of the oil, much as vintners do with premium wine grapes.
And though most agree the industry needs recognizable and enforceable standards, some producers resent the council’s requirement, feeling it is limiting and expensive.
"I have 17 different varieties I work with," said Ed Rich who has been making and selling olive oil in Copperopolis, east of Stockton, for eight years. "I could throw in all in a jug and sell it to you as Eddie’s Special, but I don’t do that. I want the characteristics of the soil, the climate to stand out. I want to learn from the oil."
But because his specialty shop sells small quantities of several types of olive oils, and the council’s certification process costs $125 on top of the $125 that a lab will charge to test the oil’s acidity, Rich opted out of the whole process.
"I just got 20 gallons of Lucca. Am I going to pay $250 to get that certified? Nope," Rich said, after explaining he applauds the organization’s efforts to raise the quality of California olive oils, but just thinks that it is premature.
Other producers say the benefits of giving consumers some assurance about the quality of their oils far outweighs the costs.
"The term extra virgin has been abused over the years, and this is a way Californians give real meaning to those words," said Bruce Golino, whose olive oil won Best of Show in last year’s Los Angeles County Fair. He only produces a couple hundred gallons of olive oil a year, pressed from the fruit of trees he first brought back from Italy nearly 10 years ago. "The certification is our way of telling consumers what they’ve got is really extra virgin."