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May 19, 2015<\/p>\n
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Contact: Carol McKay, NCL, 412-945-3242, carolm@nclnet.org<\/a> Washington, DC\u2014 The National Consumers League (NCL) has released the testing results of national brands of extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) products, finding that \u2013 of 11 products sampled \u2013 six failed to meet EVOO standards when evaluated by a highly accredited Australian lab. In early January of this year, the consumer group purchased 11 different varieties of olive oil, all labeled extra virgin, from four major Washington area retailers (Whole Foods Market, Trader Joe\u2019s, Safeway, and Giant). Of those 11 products, six failed to meet International Olive Council (IOC) standards required to be considered extra virgin quality; only five were found to be true extra virgin olive oils.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of NCL\u2019s priorities is to assess whether the food in our supermarkets are accurately labeled,\u201d said Sally Greenberg, NCL\u2019s executive director. \u201cThe results of our olive oil testing reveal that, while consumers are buying and paying extra for olive oil labeled EVOO, too much of the olive oil bought off the shelf isn\u2019t the real deal. It\u2019s mislabeled, or it\u2019s been degraded over the course of the shipping and storage process. When that happens, consumers are paying top dollar for that EVOO label without getting the enhanced health and taste benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n Olive oils are classified based on their chemistry, flavor profile, and presence of defects, and are labeled (from best quality to worst quality) extra virgin, virgin, ordinary, and lampante. An olive oil found to have any defects cannot be classified as \u201cextra virgin.\u201d At the other end of the spectrum, lampante is a classification that the U.S. Department of Agriculture, along with other standard-setting authorities, uses to indicate that the oil is not fit for human consumption.<\/p>\n Shortly after purchase in January, NCL shipped the samples to the Australian Oil Research Laboratory (AORL), one of the world\u2019s leading testing facilities accredited by the IOC and the American Oil Chemists\u2019 Society. NCL commissioned AORL to comprehensively analyze the oils with a variety of tests, including sensory assessment (also known as the organoleptic assessment) in order to identify flavor profiles and defects in the oils.<\/p>\n The following five products were found to have no flavor defects and to be classified as extra virgin:<\/p>\n Some of the brands purchased were available at multiple retailers, while others were sold under the retailer\u2019s private label. Bottles were selected from the back of lower shelves to ensure they were not damaged by exposure to natural or artificial lighting.<\/p>\n \u201cBased on my review of the data, both the organoleptic (sensory or taste testing) and chemical tests support the same conclusion, that only five of the 11 [products] samples tested were \u2018extra virgin\u2019 as represented on the label,\u201d said Richard Cantrill, chief science officer and technical director of the American Oil Chemists\u2019 Society (AOCS), a global network of oil scientists considered the leading fats and oils association in the world. \u201cThe testing authority for these NCL samples\u2014Australian Oil Research Laboratories\u2014holds full accreditation for both the sensory and chemical methods employed, and those methodologies are scientifically valid and referenced in different olive oil standards throughout the world.\u201d<\/p>\n Several other authoritative sources have tested EVOO in the last several years and made similar findings. July 2010 the UC Davis Olive Center issued a report showing that 69 percent of imported olive oils labeled as \u201cextra virgin\u201d failed the IOC sensory standard – in other words, these oils were defective and failed to meet the international standard for extra virgin olive oil. In September 2012, Consumer Reports<\/em> published results of its testing of EVOO-labeled samples and found only 9 of 23 met the EVOO standards. One piece of good news is that all the samples NCL tested were found to be 100 percent olive oil, and none were cut with refined oil or seed oil, which is a form of EVOO fraud. Several of the brands that failed to meet EVOO standards in NCL\u2019s testing also failed when tested by these other entitles.<\/p>\n \u201cBased on my experience and observations, I believe there is widespread mislabeling of extra virgin olive oil,\u201d said Paul Miller, president of the Australian Olive Association. \u201cIn many cases, the packers of EVOO products may knowingly distribute older oils that may have been extra virgin at one point, but stand little chance of remaining extra virgin by the time the oil hits the grocery store shelves. In the worst cases the oil was probably nowhere near extra virgin quality when it was packed. The \u2018best by\u2019 dates can be inaccurate, leaving consumers with oil mislabeled as \u2018extra virgin\u2019 that is of poor quality, is not fresh or flavorful and lacks all the positive health effects of true extra virgin olive oil. In countries where the law on the books is enforced, such as Italy, Canada, Australia, and Germany, these problems are significantly reduced, but the United States currently is not one of those countries.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paul Miller, Australian Olive Association, +61 41-285-4974<\/a>, hortempm@bigpond.com<\/a>
Mary Flynn, Brown University, 401-793-4707<\/a>, Mary_Flynn@brown.edu<\/a><\/p>\n\n