`Extra Virgin Olive Oil IGP Sicilia - Olive Oil Times
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Extra Virgin Olive Oil IGP Sicilia

By Vincenza Ferrara
Dec. 3, 2013 10:02 UTC
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The Product Specification for the Protected Geographical Identification (PGI) ​“Olio Extra Vergine di Oliva IGP Sicilia” was laid down by the Food and Agriculture Department of Sicily last month and it has already been approved by the national author­i­ties. The path to Brussels is open and the European Commission’s approval will be the final step in the recog­ni­tion of Sicilian olive oil.

The Protected Geographical Identification (PGI) is a EU des­ig­na­tion to pro­tect the ori­gin of an agri­cul­tural prod­uct or food­stuff which orig­i­nates in the European Union and is made accord­ing to the pro­ce­dures estab­lished by the Regulation (EU) No 1151/2012 of the European Parliament and the Council of 21 November 2012.

A prod­uct spec­i­fi­ca­tion states the spe­cific rules agri­cul­tural prod­ucts and foods have to ful­fill to obtain the PGI, among which is a detailed descrip­tion of the prod­uct itself (includ­ing raw mate­ri­als, and phys­i­cal, chem­i­cal, micro­bi­o­log­i­cal and organolep­tic char­ac­ter­is­tics), the def­i­n­i­tion and descrip­tion of the geo­graph­i­cal area, a descrip­tion of the meth­ods used to obtain the prod­uct and, if appro­pri­ate, the authen­tic and unvary­ing local meth­ods.

A PGI is an E.U. pro­gram to pro­tect and sup­port the link between the qual­ity or char­ac­ter­is­tics of a prod­uct and the geo­graph­i­cal envi­ron­ment it comes from.

The increas­ing demand for qual­ity and tra­di­tional prod­ucts is strictly related to the safe­guard of the eco- and agro-sys­tems each ter­ri­tory has, and the ben­e­fits of a PGI des­ig­na­tion for the Sicilian extra vir­gin olive oil are immense, not only from an eco­nomic point of view, but also for the sus­tain­able devel­op­ment of its agri­cul­tural sec­tor.

As the regional author­i­ties declared, the Sicilia IGP indi­ca­tion has the aim of pro­tect­ing Sicilian extra vir­gin oils and cul­ti­vars from coun­ter­feit­ing, to guar­an­tee trace­abil­ity and to sup­port the olive grow­ers who work with pas­sion and respect for the earth. The extra vir­gin ​“IGP Sicilia” will be an oil made not only with olives har­vested in Sicily, but above all processed, bot­tled and pack­aged there.

Composed of ten arti­cles, the Olio Extra Vergine di Oliva IGP Sicilia prod­uct spec­i­fi­ca­tions deter­mine the spe­cific cul­ti­vars, as well as the geo­graphic areas of pro­duc­tion and a set of rules for trace­abil­ity.

Sicily is the third largest Italian region in the pro­duc­tion of extra vir­gin olive oil with 20 mil­lions trees spread over a 185 thou­sands hectares. Such a huge envi­ron­men­tal and bio­di­ver­sity her­itage must be pre­served and pro­moted.

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