Brussels, 27/08/2012 (Agence Europe) - In line with the action plan (see EUROPE 10636 and 10637) presented by the European Commission, the delegation of the EU made a declaration at the meeting of the International Olive Council (IOC) held in Buenos Aires from 2 to 6 July of this year. "The standardisation of international trade requires an unstinting effort to follow developments in production, consumer preferences and scientific progress in the chemistry of olives". Against this backdrop, the EU believes that the IOC remains the international reference organisation as regards quality standards for olive oil and must therefore intensify its efforts on control, quality and purity methods.
In the framework of olive chemistry work under way, the EU wishes to invite the executive secretariat of the IOC to step up its efforts to complete the following dossiers as quickly as possible, which aim to protect the quality and purity and preserve the high-quality image of olive oil products: lowering the limit for stigmastadiene content to improve the detection of blends of virgin olive oils with refined oils; the adoption of the global method of detecting extraneous oils in olive oil; the definition of reduced limit for alkyl esters, in order to exclude deodorised oils made from poor-quality oils; the revision of the calculation of the method to determine wax, a key indicator of quality and purity; the reduction of the level of myristic acid to improve the detection of palm oil in blends; the adoption of the method of determining diglycerides and triglycerides to combat fraudulent blends and determine freshness.
"In the last 10 years, the basic parameters for each category have remained the same, whilst at the same time, we have seen a constant improvement in production, processing and commercialisation techniques for olive oil. Trade has increased by 75%, reflecting the product's quality image", the declaration reads. In this context, the EU is planning to present the members of the IOC with proposals for discussion and examination on the classification of olive oils into categories and, in particular, the physical and chemical parameters for quality and purity. (LC/transl.fl)