USDA to implement new standards for extra virgin olive oil

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On the heels of a controversial study that found some "extra virgin" olive oils purchased in supermarkets and big-box stores were merely "virgin," the U.S. Department of Agriculture next week will implement guidelines that officially spell out the difference.

While the standards may be new to some consumers, they're far from virgin territory for the growing number of olive oil producers in Ventura County, Calif.

"The regulations are much more lax than what I had to go through to get my California Olive Oil Council sticker," said Tracy Stansfield of Sisar Creek Olive Oil, which next month will start its second annual harvest.

The sticker, a tiny circle that includes the harvest year and the words "certified extra virgin," appears on bottles of Sisar Creek oil.

To earn it, the oil made from organic olives grown in the Upper Ojai Valley was tested by the council's panel of tasters and scientists and found to contain zero defects and no more than 0.5 percent free oleic acid, which in high amounts can render an oil inedible.

In place since 2003, the measurements used by the nonprofit trade group are more strenuous than the USDA guidelines that were adopted in April and will take effect on Monday, Stansfield noted.

Under USDA guidelines, an extra virgin olive oil must contain zero defects and no more than 0.8 percent free oleic acid.

But even though they are voluntary and there is uncertainty over how or even if they will be enforced, the new national guidelines are better than what they replace, say supporters of California olive oil industry. That industry currently produces about 1 percent of the 75.4 million gallons Americans consume each year.

"This is an important first step, because the current guidelines date back to 1948 and are irrelevant to the way olive oil is marketed today. Instead of 'virgin' and 'extra virgin,' they use terms like 'Grade A Fancy,' as though you were talking about cans of fruit cocktail. It's a consumer-protection issue," said Dan Flynn, executive director of the University of California-Davis Olive Center.

Patricia Darragh, executive director of the California Olive Oil Council, agreed.

"There has been a concern for some time about the quality of oil brought into the U.S. In the absence of federal standards, some unscrupulous producers have flooded the market with mislabeled extra virgin olive oil," Darragh said.

"The lower grades do not have the health benefits associated with extra virgin olive oil," she added. "People have been paying for the higher grade of olive oil and in some cases getting a lower grade. They are not getting what they paid for."

The new guidelines, which are the result of a USDA petition filed by the California council in 2005, echo those employed by the International Olive Council in Madrid.

In accordance with the new guidelines, an oil is no longer considered extra virgin if anything other than olives is added to it, Flynn said.

The University of California-Davis Olive Center, in conjunction with the Australian Oils Research Laboratory, did a study which found that, of the 52 bottles of 19 brands of extra virgin olive oils sampled, 32 failed to make the extra virgin cut as described in the new guidelines.

Although it focused on imported brands, the study included two samples each of five California brands. Of the 10 California samples, one failed the extra virgin test.

Announced in July, the study's results were denounced by the International Olive Council and the North American Olive Oil Association. At issue: The study was funded in part by the California council and made use of statistically insignificant samples tested using outdated methods, said Bob Bauer, president of the North American Olive Oil Association.

A second, larger study, also funded in part by the California council, is slated for completion early next year, Flynn said.

Meanwhile, the initial study has inspired at least one class-action lawsuit that threatens to pit one "Top Chef" contestant against another.

David Martin, who appeared on the first season of Bravo's culinary reality show, is among the plaintiffs in a case filed in Orange County against a long list of defendants that includes the makers of Bertolli Extra Virgin Olive Oil, which was ranked simply as "virgin" by the study -- and for whom season-five contestant Fabio Viviani is a spokesperson.

Defendants include retail stores that have stocked the brands used in the study, even though those stores were not the sources of the specific bottles that were tested, said John Hurney, an attorney with Callahan & Blaine, the Santa Ana firm that filed the suit.

"Retailers have a responsibility to make sure that what they put on their shelves is what the labels on those products say they are," Hurney said.

(Contact Lisa McKinnon of the Ventura County Star in California at XX(at)xxx.com.)