Competitions to come under scrutiny

In the process of making the ‘Excellence Score’ assigned to extra virgin olive oils equitable, Savantes is researching extra virgin olive oil competitions around the world with a view to including the most rigorous in the calculation of excellence.

The main criteria to be considered in the ranking of competitions will be:

• Entries being accepted from all producing regions
• Independence of the organising enterprise
• Rigour of the entry process including compliance of the extra virgin olive oils with international quality standards
• Experience, breadth and independence of the judging panel
• Processes in place to ensure that the oils bearing award claims and sold to consumers are the same as those that won the awards
• Retention of samples and processes in place to deal with any disputes i.e. Redress when an oil is deemed to be defective

The results of the research will be used to rank the competitions and available to users of the GOOD application.

Judging Own Oils

Being a judge in a competition in which one enters one’s own extra virgin olive oils seems to be the norm in Australia. It is a practice which is frowned upon when discussed with the general public where the apparent vested interest is ethically unacceptable. Chief judges and organisers justify the practice by stating that the pool of experienced judges in Australia is small and in the shows it is ensured that judges do not judge their own oils.

Five judges on the Melbourne Fine Food Show panel had a direct or indirect interest in oils entered. One judge entered an oil in every class which would make it difficult to ensure that the judge did not score their own oil. Notably some judges who regularly enter their olive oils in competitions did not enter their oil in the Melbourne Show in which they were judging.

Some industry competitions such as the Australian Olive Association no longer publish the list of judges, possibly to avoid criticism of apparent vested interests and bias. Surely the simplest way to avoid such criticism is to rule that judges cannot enter oils with which they have an association.