The most important official quality categories as determined by the EU commission since 2004 are the following:
- Extra virgin olive oil (Spanish: Aceite Virgen Extra ) obtained from the first pressing. This is the finest grade of olive oil. It is cold pressed from the pulp of fresh, healthy fruit by mechanical means and meets very strict requirements in terms of both its chemical makeup and its taste properties. Unfortunately, only the chemical requirements can be monitored; the demands in terms of taste cannot (yet). The natural acidity (the amount of free fatty acids expressed as a percentage of oleic acid) of this oil may not exceed 0.8°.
- Virgin olive oil (Spanish: Aceite Virgen ) obtained from the first pressing. This is also cold-pressed olive oil, but of a lesser quality. That could be because the fruit was not as fresh or robust or because it concerns oil that is more than a year old. The natural acidity of this oil may not exceed 2°.
- Olive oil for use in lamps (Spanish: Aceite lampante ). Although this oil was originally cold-pressed, it is now no longer fit for human consumption. That could be due to oxidation (rancid taste) or contamination (polluted). The natural acidity of this oil will certainly exceed 2°.
- Refined olive oil (Spanish: Aceite refinado ). This olive oil is not cold pressed, but rather distilled from olive waste at a high temperature (> 100°C.) by means of catalysts with a chemical or biochemical effect. This waste could be the so-called presscake or pomace that remains in the mill after the cold pressing, but it could also be olive oil for lamps or even saturated filter sand (commonly used in milling to quickly make extra virgin olive oil look clear). Refined olive oil is associated with the cancer-causing substance benzopyrene, due to the use of certain chemical catalysts (e.g. the solvents hexane or heptane) during the refining process. Another thing that happens during that process is that the medicinal properties of olive oil (vitamins and antioxidants) are essentially lost. Pure (unblended) refined olive oil has no scent, taste or colour whatsoever. The degree of acidity is artificially set in the refinery at just 0.3° or lower.*
* This artificially low acidity is the reason why the EU has recently altogether forbidden the mention of the acidity on the label of a bottle of olive oil. Such labels seemed to suggest that olive oil with such a low acidity would be healthier than extra virgin olive oil.
N.B.: In practice, manufacturers often mix oils from different categories with each other for commercial purposes. Refined olive oil is often blended with e.g. 15% cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil, for example. Words on the label of a bottle of olive oil such as 'pure', 'light', 'classic', 'delicate', 'fine' or 'soft' are the product of the manufacturer's imagination and unfortunately offer no legal guarantee whatsoever as to the quality. The only exception to that is the word 'extra'.
|
