Differentiation of Extra Virgin Olive Oils Essential

The push for longer shelf-life and higher polyphenol levels by quality certifying organisations with their associated standards could be threatening more delicate tasting extra virgin olive oils.

It is notable that in the extra virgin olive oils tasted at recent Savantes programmes there have been fewer oils exhibiting the riper fruit flavours of later harvested olives.

These olive oils are ‘sweeter’ and exhibit more tropical fruit flavours than their robust counterparts which tend to green vegetal peppery flavours. They have a particular culinary use in fish cuisine, pastries, baking and desserts.

While the more robust oils with longer shelf-life – two years and over – may suit the marketers better, producers must be careful that they are not producing a taste in olive oil which many consumers and cuisines don’t like. There is a danger of following the path the engineers of the modified tomatoes took to give the fruit longer shelf-life, sending consumers looking for a tomato which tasted like a tomato.

It is important that the offering of flavours of extra virgin olive oil to the consumers remains diverse and pleases a range of palates.

Delicate Olive Oils Out of Flavour at NYIOOC 2014

The results of the New York International Olive Oil competition are out and there is much justified celebration among the winners.

Of the 651 entries, 180 (28%) received gold medals and 73 (11%) received silver medals. The balance, 398 oils (61%) were not considered by the judges to be worthy of medals in this competition

The worrying statistic coming from this is that the judges showed a strong bias towards awarding medals to robust oils and virtually ignored delicate oils. The number of oils classified delicate which entered the competition is unknown. What is known is that just 8 (4%) of the gold medals awarded went to delicate oils, 68 (38%) to medium oils and 104 (58%) to robust oils.

It would be interesting to see if this preference for stronger flavours would be similar if the same extra virgin olive oils were judged by a knowledgeable consumer panel rather than a panel of professional olive oil tasters.

Olive Oil Exploration - Waiheke Island, New Zealand

Having visited extra virgin olive oil producers and tasted their oils in most regions of New Zealand it was time to visit the groves of Waiheke Island, just a half hour ferry ride from Auckland. The Maori name Waiheke means ‘cascading or descending waters’.

Extra virgin olive oils from this region have received much publicity through winning many awards over recent years.

With some online research and the help of brochures we set off with a stream of day trippers with a sunny day complimenting the cool sea breeze washing over the ferry. As the skyline of Auckland faded and we weaved our way through many islands including the volcanic cone of Rangitoto, we sighted Waiheke with its green rolling hills and rocky coastline. The ferry docked neatly into the terminal at Matiatia Bay and off poured the day trippers, trampers and wine enthusiasts, interspersed with the locals kitted out in the casual New Zealand uniform of cargo pants and jandles.

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.

Will ‘Value’ be the new aid to buying excellent extra virgin olive oil?

Value is a concept developed by Savantes to give consumers a realistic appraisal of the value for money of extra virgin olive oils presented to them on retail shelves.

Confronted with a range of positive and negative publicity surrounding the quality of extra virgin olive oils and the burgeoning award medals on bottles, quality seals and proprietary campaigns promoting new classifications such as ‘Ultra Premium’, consumers are understandably confused.

Value will give extra virgin olive purchasers a simple tool which gives extra virgin olive oils an ‘Excellence Score’ based on their performance in selected international competitions.

All the customer needs to do is enter the price of the oils on the shelf and the app does the rest, dividing the ‘Excellence Score’ by the price giving the Value. The customer can then get a GOOD idea of the high quality of the extra virgin olive oils being sold at a competitive price
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For example: To qualify an extra virgin olive oil must be entered in at least 3 of the selected competitions.

Scores given are 5 for a Gold Medal, 3 for Silver, 1 for Bronze. The three highest scores are used if more than 3 competitions are eligible.

• EVOO 1 wins 3 gold medals and has an excellence score of 15.
• EVOO 2 wins 2 golds and a silver and has an excellence score of 13. 
• EVOO 3 wins 2 silvers and a bronze has an excellence score of 7. 

Once we have an excellence score we can give a Value = excellence score÷price.

If the retail price for all the products is $/€/£10 for a 500ml bottle (it doesn’t make any difference which currency is used) the ‘Values’ will be:

• EVOO1 – 15÷10 = 1.5
• EVOO2 – 13÷10 = 1.3
• EVOO3 – 7÷10   = 0.7

One Enterprise Controls Australian Olive Oil Market

In its commentary about the Australian olive oil industry the USITC Report stated ‘the olive-growing industry structure is very concentrated, with an estimated 85 percent of production controlled by about 40 large-scale producers. One company, Boundary Bend Limited, accounts for about half of Australia’s production’.

This prompted Olive Business to explore just how much control of the Australian industry is vested in one enterprise.

According to the Chairman’s Report to the Boundary Bend Limited AGM the company produces 68% of the total olive oil produced in Australia, is the largest exporter at 65% and is the largest marketer of Australian olive oil with control over 80%.

In the two main supermarkets, Woolworths and Coles, through its brands Cobram Estate and Red Island, the company accounts for 80% of retail sales of Australian olive oils. The closest competitor is the supermarket’s own brands at 10% in each case.

In the research funded by industry and the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation in 2011-2012, employees of Boundary Bend are listed as the research managers for 4 of 9 projects – the only projects vested in a private company.

The commercial and political implications of this dominance are profound for Australian producers. It will be difficult for any other producers to bid effectively for supermarket supply contracts as securing adequate Australian olive oil will be a challenge. Prices paid for domestic oil supplies from smaller producers can be driven down by Boundary Bend as other domestic buyers do not have retail supply contracts.

Given that research will in future be funded by levies on production, the high contribution to the research funds by Boundary Bend will justify greater say in which projects are funded. The same applies to the political agenda as membership subscriptions to the peak representative body, the Australian Olive Association, are also based on production levies.

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.