Forensic Food – EVOO Has Tougher Standards than Science Used to Convict

In April, the U.S. Department of Agriculture adopted scientifically verifiable standards for nomenclature for olive oil – i.e., “virgin” or “extra virgin.” with extra virgin considered the highest quality because it has the best flavor.

The USDA will begin enforcing these standards in October in hopes of differentiating low quality “impostors” from the best oil. The standards will also conform to international and trade group definitions so that buyers know whether they have a true high-end bottle of EVOO or just the “Two-Buck Chuck” variety.

Patricia Darragh, executive director of the California Olive Oil Council, a trade association of producers responsible for most US-grown olive oil explained that “[t]here has been a concern for some time about the quality and truthfulness of oil brought into the United States.  In the absence of a federal standards, some unscrupulous importers have flooded the market.”

The new regulations provide specific chemical parameters of purity and freshness that provide a basis for enforcement. They include indicators for fatty acid composition, which helps separate olive oils from seed oils, and the ultraviolet light absorption, which indicates the oil’s state of preservation, as well as a taste test by experts.

Glad to know that we have such rigorous criteria for olive oil. It’s certainly more important than applying strict standards to the forensic science promulgated in court and used to lock people away for the rest of their lives.