by Mueller, Tom
PGI (“Protected Geographical Indication,” IGP in Italian) – A legal designation by the EU which is similar to PDO, though less stringent. PGI status requires that at least one phase in the production of a product must occur in a given geographic region. (In the case of extra virgin olive oil, for example, the olives may be grown in the PGI region but milled elsewhere.)
Polyphenols – A generic term for a range of phytochemicals contained in olive oil and other natural substances, many of which demonstrate antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Polyphenols are widely held by medical researchers to have a range of positive health effects against such pathologies as cardiovascular disease, cancer, and Alzheimer’s disease. Because they protect against oxidation, polyphenols also protect olive oil against spoilage.
Pomace, olive pomace oil – An oil extracted from olive pomace—the solid waste left over from the extraction process, composed primarily of olive pits, skin, and flesh—using hexane or another industrial solvent, then highly refined. Though frequently sold in ways that lead consumers to believe it is olive oil, olive pomace oil is actually a very different substance, with far fewer health benefits and several potential health risks (food safety authorities have found certain batches of olive pomace oil to contain mineral oil and PAHs). The oversight of olive pomace oil production is often limited; in Italy, for example, pomace oil can be produced in facilities that are not officially designated for food production.
Pure olive oil – A marketing term for refined olive oil that has been blended with a small amount of extra virgin olive oil to give it flavor. See also Light olive oil, Olive oil.
Racking – After olive oil is extracted from the olives (see Extraction), it is commonly left in a tank for a period of weeks to allow the tiny pieces of olive pulp, skin, and pit that are suspended in the oil to settle out. During the racking process, the oil-maker decants the oil several times and removes the sediment at the bottom of the tank, which could otherwise give the oil off-flavors.
Rancid, rancidity – Unpleasant odor or taste from an olive oil (or other oil or fat) that has undergone extensive oxidation. See also Flaws.
Refined olive oil – Olive oil that has undergone a chemical and physical refinement process, rendering it tasteless, odorless, and colorless. In sales jargon, “refined olive oil” is a blend of refined olive oil and a small portion of extra virgin olive oil, which gives the resulting mixture flavor, aroma, and color. See also Light olive oil, Olive oil, Pure olive oil, and Refining.
Refining – Vegetable oil refining is the series of chemical and physical steps by which odors, tastes, colors, and other characteristics, typically unpleasant, are removed from olive oil or any other oil made from seeds, fruits, or nuts. These steps typically include alkali refining, water refining (or “degumming”), bleaching, winterizing (or “destearinating”), and deodorizing (see also Deodorized oil). During alkali refining, the oil is heated and mixed with an alkaline substance such as sodium carbonate or sodium hydroxide, which causes free fatty acids (see Free fatty acidity) and other undesirable elements to settle out of the oil in the form of soap. Water refining or degumming involves treating the oil with hot water, steam, or water mixed with acid, followed by centrifugation, which removes gummy phospholipids contained in the oil. During the bleaching process, an oil’s pigments are elimated with filtering agents like fuller’s earth or activated carbon. In winterizing or destearinating, an oil is rapidly chilled and filtered, thereby lowering the temperature at which it will begin to solidify. Deodorization involves heating an oil (typically to temperatures between 175 and 250 degrees Celcius), placing it under high vacuum, and blowing steam through it to distill out unpleasant tastes and aromas. Olive oil is one of the very few vegetable oils that does not require refining; since the refining process removes tastes, aromas, and many health-promoting attributes of olive oil, no refined olive oil can legally be sold as extra virgin oil.
Smoke point – The heat at which olive oil, or any other cooking fat or oil, begins to produce an acrid, bluish smoke. This event signals the degradation of the flavor and nutritional characteristics of the oil; when cooking with a given oil, care should be taken to keep the temperature below the smoke point of that oil. Generally speaking, the higher the quality of an extra virgin olive oil—and in particular the lower its free fatty acidity—the higher its smoke point. Fine oils have a smoke point of about 210 degrees Celsius, while lower-grade quasi–extra virgins begin to smoke at about 185 degrees Celsius.
Strippaggio – The slurp made by an oil-taster after taking an oil sample into his mouth, which allows a more complete sensory impression of the oil than would be possible by simply tasting it. During strippaggio, air drawn in rapidly at the corners of the mouth creates an emulsion of air, oil, and saliva, and distributes it evenly over the tongue’s papillae. Strippaggio also draws the aromatic molecules of the oil up into the nasal passages, where, through a process known as retro-nasal olfaction, a far wider range of aromas can be perceived than in the mouth itself—and with far greater precision (at a parts-per-trillion level with certain aromas). (The term strippaggio derives from the English word “stripping,” which in the context of chemistry is a separation process by which a liquid substance is transferred into its vapor phase by physical means.)
Super-high-density (SHD) – A system of olive cultivation in which 700 to 900 trees are planted to the acre, set in hedgerows like row crops, and the olives are picked by large, over-the-row harvesters. (Traditional olive groves, which are picked by hand or with simpler shaking or combing devices, contain about 100 trees to the acre, while medium-density groves hold between 200 and 400 trees per acre.) At present only a few olive cultivars are compatible with the SHD model, so the range of oils that can be made in this manner is limited; some critics also suggest that the extensive irrigation and fertilizers used in SHD and the violence of the mechanical harvesting system itself may impair oil quality. However, after the high initial costs required to set up an SHD orchard, harvests are quick compared to those in traditional groves, which reduces costs and minimizes the time between picking and crushing.
Taste panel – The team of eight tasters and one panel leader who perform the panel test on olive oil. The tasters and panel leader have all been trained to recognize the official characteristics of olive oil, both positive and negative, and to assess the relative intensities of these characteristics.
Tocopherols – A group of organic compounds which, together with related compounds called tocotrienols, are collectively referred to as “vitamin E.” Tocopherols have pronounced antioxidant properties, and have been used in the cosmetics industry to shield the skin from sun damage.
Trans fat – A fat containing one or more unsaturated fatty acids which have a transisomer, produced (with a few minor, naturally occurring exceptions) through the industrial process of hydrogenation. Trans fats are widely employed in processed foods because of their superior workability and shelf life as compared to naturally occurring fats and oils. Health authorities worldwide recognize that consumption of trans fats increases the risk of coronary heart disease, because trans fats raise the level of LDL (“bad”) cholesterol in the blood and lower HDL (“good”) cholesterol. According to the National Academy of Sciences of America, there is no safe level of trans fat consumption.
Triglycerides (or triacylglycerols) – The main constituent of vegetable and animal fats, and a vital energy storage source for plants and animals. Triglycerides consist of three fatty acids bonded to a glycerol molecule.
Unfiltered oil – Olive oil that has not undergone filtration. The choice between unfiltered and filtered oil is mainly a matter of taste. While filtration does extend shelf life and appears to improve stability during storage, it may slightly reduce the intensity of tastes and aromas in certain oils. Among premium extra virgin olive oils, the consumer’s main choice is between the clarity and brilliance of filtered oils and the cloudy density of unfiltered oils.
Virgin – The
intermediate quality grade of olive oil between superior extra virgin and inferior lampante, all three of which are technically known as virgin olive oils. Once common in stores, virgin olive oil has largely disappeared in recent years, as the de facto quality (and price) of extra virgin oil has dropped, and many virgin oils are now being labeled as extra virgin.
Virgin olive oils – Oils made from olive fruit with mechanical methods alone, such as washing and crushing the olives, malaxing and centrifuging their pulp, and filtering the resulting oil. No chemical, thermal, or other nonphysical methods, such as reesterification, are allowed in the production of virgin oils. Within the category of virgin oils, extra virgin oil is the highest grade, virgin is the next highest, and lampante is the lowest.
Appendix
CHOOSING GOOD OIL
• See www.extravirginity.com for extensive information and up-to-date resources for buying and enjoying good oil.
• Find a store where you can taste olive oils before you buy them, and where the staff can answer a few basic questions about how, where, and by whom they were made. Specialty olive oil stores and oil bars are becoming more common, and a growing number of delicatessens, markets, and supermarkets have an oil bar. Four model institutions are the Olive Press in Sonoma, California, Amphora Nueva in Berkeley, California, Eataly in Manhattan, and Zingerman’s Delicatessen in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Nationwide franchise chains like Oil & Vinegar (www.oilandvinegarusa.com) and We Olive (www.weolive.com) need to continue to concentrate on maintaining high quality in their oils, but they do offer a wide selection and knowledgeable salespeople.
• When you have to buy oil without being able to taste it first, choose a store that performs stringent quality control in its production and selection of oils, such as the Olive Press (www.theolivepress.com), Zingerman’s (www.zingermans.com), Beyond the Olive (www.beyondtheolive.com), or Corti Brothers (www.cortibros.biz).
• Unlike many wines, which improve with age, extra virgin olive oil is perishable: like all natural fruit juices, its flavor and aroma begin to deteriorate within a few months of milling, a decline that can accelerate when the oil is bottled. To get the freshest oil, and cut out middlemen who often muddy olive oil transparency and quality, buy as close to the mill as possible. If you can’t actually buy at an olive mill, find a seller who purchases excellent oil in bulk rather than in bottles or tins, and stores it in clean, temperature-controlled stainless steel containers topped with an inert gas like nitrogen to keep oxygen at bay. Failing this, look for olive oil purveyors that store their bottled oil in a cool, dark warehouse and have high turnover, which helps to ensure that the oil is fresh.
• When choosing bottled oil, prefer dark glass bottles or other containers that protect against light, and buy a quantity that you’ll use up quickly. Even an excellent oil can rapidly go rancid when left sitting under a half-bottle of air.
• Don’t pay much attention to the color of an oil. Good oils come in all shades, from vivid green to gold to pale straw, and official tasters actually use colored glasses to avoid prejudicing themselves in favor of greener oils. Both in flavor and aroma, genuine extra virgin oils have a marked fruitiness reminiscent of fresh olives, and typically some level of bitterness and pepperiness. In great oils these characteristics are harmoniously balanced, together with complex aromas, flavors, and aftertastes that bloom gradually on the senses.
• Don’t be put off by bitterness or pungency—remember that these are usually indicators of the presence of healthful antioxidants—unless one of these characteristics is overwhelming and disproportionate to the others.
• Above all, seek out freshness, choosing oils that smell and taste vibrant and lively, and avoid tastes and odors such as moldy, rancid, cooked, greasy, meaty, metallic, and cardboard. Also pay attention to mouthfeel: prefer crisp and clean to flabby, coarse, or greasy.
• Labels: If you aren’t able to taste an oil or get help from a knowledgeable salesperson, you’ll have to rely on the label for information about the oil. To begin with, ensure that your oil is labeled “extra virgin,” since other categories—“pure” or “light” oil, “olive oil,” not to mention “olive pomace oil”—have undergone chemical refinement which strips away olive flavors and many of the oil’s health benefits.
• To ensure freshness, look for bottles with a “best by” date, or better still a date of harvest. Try to buy oils only from this year’s harvest. “Best by” date are usually two years after an oil was bottled, so if you see a date that is two years away, the oil is more likely to be fresh. That said, many olive oils, particularly in the EU, are stored for years before being bottled, yet their “best by” dates are (wrongly) determined by the date of bottling, not of harvest. In fact, most supermarket extra virgins are blends of fresher oil from more recent harvests with flatter oil from earlier harvests. So far, no system has been found to calibrate the “best by” date to the chemical freshness of the oil when it is packed.
• Phrases like “packed in Italy” or “bottled in Italy” do not mean that an oil was made in Italy, much less that it was made from Italian olives. Italy is one of the world’s major importers of olive oil, much of which originates in Spain, Greece, Tunisia, and elsewhere, so don’t be taken in by Italian flags and scenes of the Tuscan countryside on the packaging. Some of the oil imported into Italy is consumed by Italians, but much of it is blended, packed, and re-exported. Generally speaking, avoid oils whose precise point of production—a specific mill—is not specified on the label.
• Chemical parameters like free fatty acidity (FFA) and peroxides are sometimes mentioned on olive oil bottles. In general terms, FFA indicates the breakdown of the basic fat structure of an oil, whether due to poor-quality fruit (bruising, olive fly infestation, fungal attack) or, most commonly, by delays between harvest and extraction of the oil; a low FFA doesn’t guarantee high quality, but high FFA almost always means poor oil. An oil’s peroxide value indicates the extent to which a young oil has been oxidized, typically through breakdown by free radicals or by exposure to light. The levels set by the IOC and the EU (and followed recently by the USDA) for the extra virgin grade—0.8 percent FFA and a peroxide value of less than 20 milliequivalents per kilo—are by no means stringent enough to guarantee a good oil, which frequently has 0.2 percent or lower FFA and peroxides at well below 10 meq/kg.
• An oil’s polyphenol content contributes significantly to its antioxidant properties, and is therefore an important indicator of a range of health-giving characteristics, taste qualities, and shelf life (polyphenols work to preserve the oil as well as the bodies of those who consume it). The IOC recently approved a method of measuring an oil’s polyphenol content, so this indicator may become increasingly common on olive oil labels. At least in health terms, the higher the rating the better, with numbers below 300 being low, and above 500 high—though the latter can be too bitter, peppery, or both for many consumers. (Some oils rate as high as 800 in polyphenols.)
• Though not always a guarantee of quality, several certifications mentioned on olive oil labels should provide a level of confidence that an oil has been properly made.
• PDO and PGI status (see Glossary)
• Organically grown
• Olive oils certified by national and state olive oil associations, such as the Australian Olive Association, the California Olive Oil Council, and the Association 3E. The North American Olive Oil Association and the International Olive Council also run certification programs.
• Oils that scored well in recent, reputable olive oil contests are often a good choice, especially when the oil you are buying is from the same harvest as the oil that won the award (and not from a decade or more later). Leading olive oil contests include:
• Sol d’Oro (Verona, Italy): www.sol-verona.com
• Mario Solinas: www.internationaloliveoil.org/estaticos/view/227-mario-solinas-quality-award-of-the-international-olive-council
• Ercole Olivario: www.ercoleolivario.org<
br />
• Los Angeles International Extra Virgin Olive Oil Competition: www.fairplex.com/wos/olive_oil_competition
• Yolo County Fair Olive Oil Competition: www.yolocountyfair.net/html/olive_oil_competition.html
• The National Extra Virgin Olive Oil Show run by the Australian Olive Association: www.australianolives.com.au/web/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=61&Itemid=321
For information on some of the more prominent olive oil competitions around the world, see www.oliveoiltimes.com/reviews-opinions/extra virgin-olive-oil-competitions and www.oliveoilsource.com/competitions.
• Start noticing the cultivars of olives that are used to make the oils you like best, as you do the grape varietals of your favorite wines. (See Glossary under Cultivar.)
• Certain terms commonly used on olive oil labels are anachronistic, and sometimes indicate that the producer is paying more attention to the image of an oil than to what’s actually inside the bottle. Take the terms “first pressed” and “cold pressed,” for example. Since most extra virgin oil nowadays is made with centrifuges, it isn’t “pressed” at all, and all true extra virgin oil comes exclusively from the first processing of the olive paste. EU regulations state that “cold pressed” can be used only when the olive paste is kept at or below 27 degrees Celsius during the malaxing process, a level respected by nearly all serious producers—and when the oil is actually extracted with a press, not a centrifuge.
• Unfiltered oil and filtration: Some consumers view unfiltered olive oil, with tiny bits of olive pulp and skin floating in it, as more authentic and flavorful. Improper or excessive filtration can attenuate certain flavors and aromas, and most makers of fine oil prefer simply to rack their fresh-pressed oil repeatedly, removing sediment, rather than to filter it. However, other top oil-makers swear by filtration, which can significantly increase an oil’s shelf life. In either case, be on the lookout for a layer of sediment at the bottom of the bottle, which often spoils faster than the oil itself, and can produce the taste flaw of muddy sediment.
