Posts Tagged ‘IOC’

The Importance of Traceability.

Of prime importance to consumers is the knowledge that what is on the label is what is in the bottle. The Olive Oil industry is no different to any other industry, and this is especially true at the present time, when margins are under constant pressure – the potential for fraud exists. Olive oil fraud comes in two main varieties, 1) miss-labelling/miss-selling and 2) adulteration.

Miss-labelling & Miss-selling

One of the constant worries facing consumers is that what they are buying is olive oil. Is your olive pomace oil olive pomace oil or is it blend, is it extra virgin olive oil or lampante, or an olive pomace blend. How can you be sure? There are a few simple steps, first ask yourself is the price too good to be true, if it is then there is a strong probability that the reason for this is that it is not the product that they say it is. Second, are you working with a reputable supplier, whilst even the largest firms have been duped, larger firms conduct regular quality audits and buy from reputable sources. Three, ask for a full technical analysis and product specification. Ask your supplier to provide all the factories certification and accreditation and finally spot check the product for yourself. If you work with a company such as Campden BRI you can get your oil analysed for a relatively modest fee.

A 2010 report by the University of California’s Davis Olive Centre, found that 69% of imported olive oil samples and 10% of California olive oil samples labelled as extra virgin failed to meet the IOOC and United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) standards for extra virgin olive oil. Teams from the Australian Oils Research Laboratory in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales and the University of California at Davis Olive Centre analyzed 14 imported brands and five California brands of extra virgin olive oils from three different regions of California.

The two laboratories evaluated the oils based on standards and testing methods established by the IOOC and USDA and as well as several newer standards and testing methods adopted in Germany and Australia. The tests found that in the majority of cases samples of imported olive oil labelled as “extra virgin” and sold at retail locations in California did not meet the criteria for extra virgin olive oil set out by the IOOC and the USDA. Sensory tests showed that these failed samples had defective flavours such as rancid, fusty, and musty. These negative sensory results were supported by chemical data in 86% of the cases.

The report was critical of the standards put in place by the IOOC and USDA and  concluded that the IOOC/USDA standards would be more effective in assessing and enforcing olive oil quality by including another test referred to as the German/Australian DAGs standards which were recently adopted in Germany. Oil often fails to meet quality standards for a number of reasons three of which are oxidation by exposure to elevated temperatures, light, and/or aging, adulteration with cheaper refined olive oil and poor quality oil made from damaged and overripe olives, processing flaws, and/or improper oil storage. Taking all this onboard it is important to use oils with full accreditation and traceability from olive grove to table.

Adulteration

Is your olive pomace oil olive pomace oil or is it blend, is extra virgin olive oil or an olive pomace blend. Adulteration is simply the blending of the product you are buying with a cheaper alternative to lower the cost of production. This is quite a sophisticated process and the masters of this process create oils that are very difficult for the average consumer to detect. In 1997 and 1998 the European Union was forced to conclude that olive oil was the most adulterated agricultural product in the European Union.

This prompted the E.U.’s anti-fraud office to establish an olive-oil task force. The task force was disbanded after a few years, but fraud remains a major international problem. Olive oil has a much greater value than most other vegetable oils, but it is costly and time-consuming to produce and is surprisingly easy to blend without detection. Adulteration is especially common in Italy, the world’s leading importer, consumer, and exporter of olive oil.

For those who are interested there is the famous case of Domenico Ribatti, which can be read about in Tom Mueller article ‘Slippery Business’.

At the present time the harvest in Spain, Italy and Greece is looking good with an estimated increase of approximately 7% over last year’s crop. Spain has had the ‘right type of rain at the right time’, and if Greece experiences some rain in the next two months, we could see a significant upward revision in their harvest’s estimate. According to initial estimates released by the International Olive Oil Council (IOC) the Global 2011/12 olive is estimated to increase from 2010/2011. IOC estimates that Spain is expected to produce 1.4 mt, Greece 310,000 mt France 5,700 mt. Italy has yet to give the IOC this year’s estimates.

The price of oil in Spain is currently so low that we do not envisage it going significantly lower, the only caveat to this is if we see a significant movement in the price of Sterling vs. the Euro. At the present time, the price has become a political issue, and there is no desire from the major bottlers to see an intervention in the market, the net effect of this is that the market for Spanish Extra Virgin should continue to be stable over the next few months. There is a good deal of oil left in Spain’s reserves from the 2010/2011 harvest, so with the upcoming predicted bumper crop the Co-ops will need the storage space. The effect of which is that there might be some good deals to be had towards the end of the season.

The Greek market is also relatively stable and with the current crop predictions, if there is to be any movement in the price, the likelihood is that it will be a downwards movement in the price. The only potential that exists for an increase in the price of Greek extra virgin oil is if we see the large Spanish and Italian bottlers buying large quantities of oil to use in the blending of their high-street brands.

As you may or may not know a large a percentage of the high street consumer brands are oils made up of extra virgin oils from all over the Mediterranean basin, and these oils are blended to a specific taste profile. Greek oil is used in this blending process to reduce the finished oil’s acidity and bitterness. However, with good oils coming from Turkey and Spain the likelihood of this happening is low – so we see no reason to secure Greek oil in anticipation of an increase in the price.

There is some concern from some of our producers about the Italian 2011/12 crop, they feel that if the rain does not come in the next few weeks the harvest will be damaged and the quality of the oil will be lower than in standard seasons. However, prices recently dipped in Italy after their high in May/June so there is some confidence that the Italian crop will be up from last year. However, it is worth keeping an eye on the rains in the South of Italy and Sicily over the next few weeks.