`Olive Council Wants Members to Crack Down on Flavored Olive Oils - Olive Oil Times
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Olive Council Wants Members to Crack Down on Flavored Olive Oils

By Julie Butler
Jun. 29, 2014 10:09 UTC

An olive oil pro­mo­tion cam­paign in Japan and an app cal­cu­lat­ing the car­bon cost of mak­ing olive oil are just two of the items on the International Olive Council’s table for next year.

Advancement of a seal cer­ti­fy­ing con­for­mity with the IOC stan­dard in import mar­kets and a self-mon­i­tor­ing tool to com­bat oil adul­ter­ation are also on the hori­zon.

These were among the ini­tia­tives listed by the IOC in a sum­mary of the meet­ing of its Council of Members (coun­cil) – the IOC’s deci­sion-mak­ing body – held June 2 – 6 at the IOC head­quar­ters in Madrid.

IOC coun­tries asked to ​“bet­ter reg­u­late” fla­vored olive oils

Though not men­tioned in the IOC state­ment, the meet­ing also dis­cussed the hot topic of the ​‘legal­ity’ of fla­vored extra vir­gin olive oils and infused olive oils, which are par­tic­u­larly pop­u­lar in mar­kets such as the U.S., U.K. and Australia.

In May, the IOC Advisory Committee on Olive Oil and Table Olives voted, ​“after lengthy dis­cus­sion,” to rec­om­mend the IOC remind its mem­bers of the terms of the IOC trade stan­dard, which they must adhere to in inter­na­tional trade, and under which ​“extra vir­gin olive oil is the juice of the olive and noth­ing else” and ​“olive oil is defined solely as the blend of refined olive oil and vir­gin olive oil with­out the addi­tion of any other prod­uct.”

The issue was fur­ther dis­cussed at the coun­cil meet­ing, where, accord­ing to an IOC spokesper­son, it was decided that ​“a reminder will be issued by the IOC to its mem­ber coun­tries high­light­ing the impor­tance of com­ply­ing with the IOC trade stan­dard and encour­ag­ing them to adopt domes­tic rules to bet­ter reg­u­late trade in fla­vored oils.”

Budgeting for future Japanese mar­ket­ing cam­paign

In its sum­mary of the coun­cil meet­ing, the IOC said the coun­cil asked the IOC exec­u­tive sec­re­tariat (respon­si­ble for the day-to-day run­ning of the IOC) to pre­pare a draft 2015 bud­get cater­ing for pro­posed activ­i­ties includ­ing the launch of a generic pro­mo­tion cam­paign in Japan, an inter­na­tional course for lead­ers of vir­gin olive oil tast­ing pan­els, and a grant fund­ing pro­gram for olive oil pro­mo­tion and tech­ni­cal assis­tance in IOC mem­ber coun­tries.

Mario Solinas Award cer­e­mony in New York next June

The coun­cil also approved hav­ing two edi­tions of the IOC’s Mario Solinas Award in future, ​“aimed at increas­ing the num­ber of entries, par­tic­u­larly from the south­ern hemi­sphere,” and hold­ing the award cer­e­mony dur­ing the Summer Fancy Food Show in New York City next June.

Tool, sem­i­nar on olive oil’s car­bon foot­print

The IOC said the coun­cil mem­bers were told about a planned IOC guide to good prac­tice con­cern­ing CO2 bal­ance in the life cycle of olive oil and that the IOC exec­u­tive sec­re­tariat intended to develop a soft­ware tool ​“allow­ing users to cal­cu­late the CO2 emit­ted and cap­tured in the pro­duc­tion of one litre of olive oil.”

The IOC has been asked by the coun­cil to bud­get for an inter­na­tional sem­i­nar on olive oil’s car­bon foot­print.

Quality con­trol mea­sures

The coun­cil has also instructed the IOC exec­u­tive sec­re­tariat ​“to con­tinue work­ing with asso­ci­a­tions on a draft self-mon­i­tor­ing agree­ment designed as a tool to com­bat oil adul­ter­ation and another agree­ment to pro­mote a seal cer­ti­fy­ing con­for­mity with the IOC stan­dard in import mar­kets.”

Olive prop­a­ga­tion and genetic resources

The IOC said the coun­cil mem­bers also heard progress reports on var­i­ous projects already under­way, includ­ing on:

- irri­ga­tion man­age­ment (IRRIGOLIVO),

- con­ser­va­tion of genetic resources (RESGEN), and

- the world olive col­lec­tions in Marrakech (Morocco), Izmir (Turkey) and Cordoba (Spain).

They were also told the IOC Executive Secretariat would be organ­is­ing two sem­i­nars in October, one in Marrakech to mark the end of the IRRIGAOLIVO project and another in Tunis on genetic olive resources and the pre­lim­i­nary results of an olive nurs­ery project. ​“The idea is to hold an inter­na­tional course on plant prop­a­ga­tion tech­niques,” the IOC also said.

The coun­cil approved a sec­ond call for appli­ca­tions for grants for tech­ni­cal assis­tance and exten­sion activ­i­ties and activ­i­ties to pro­mote olive oil and table olives. (Details of the call can be seen at: http://www.internationaloliveoil.org/estaticos/view/413-grants.)

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