Olive oil quality standards

Extra Virgin

Extra Virgin Olive Oil is considered the best oil on the market and the one we produce is the result of a cultivation followed personally by the agronomist who works in our farm. Olives are picked up manually from the plant and we choose only the healthy ones when are in the middle of their ripeness. Manual harvest is more expensive compared to other methods that provide for picking the fruit from the soil when already mature (often they are rotten and have lost their organoleptic characteristics). Indeed this last method deteriorates oil making it growing more acid (acidity percentage is one of the factors to determine oil quality).

In order to classify olive oil as “Extra Virgin” it has to have less than 1% of acidity and our oil has it barely at 0,4%. Another evidence that proofs the high quality of our product is that it has been evaluated by a jury of 11 professional oil-tasters who gave it the appellation of I.G.P. (Indicazione Geografica Protetta, ie Protected Geografical Indication). The appellation is given not only by oil tasting but also evaluating the entire production process, from harvest, extraction to packaging, that must be effected in the Tuscan territory only using olives of a high quality. Furthermore, since we produce an oil having less than the 0,6% of acidity (only half of the entire Extra Virgin production reaches this standard), the Department for Agricultural Policies delivered us an apposite numbered band to put on bottles. 

The colour of a just extracted good olive oil is muddy green with yellow tones. This oil has also a tang odour and a definite flavour which recalls the olive just picked up.

The most important tests

- ACIDITY: Represented by oleic acid percentage, is one of the fundamental parameters to estimate oil quality. Proper harvest and a reduced period of storage before crushing are the prerequisite conditions to obtain a product with a low acidity. Furthermore, it is important to start with a fruit of a high quality picked up directly from the plant then worked using appropriate processing systems.

- PEROXIDES: They are expressed in hydrogen quantity assimilated by oil, this natural oxidative process leads to the fact that oil goes rancid and to the development of products that give unpleasant taste and smell to oil. This parameter indicates the oxidative potential of olive oil and the higher it is faster oil goes rancid.

So it is important to protect oil from light, rise and fall in temperature (it freezes at + 7°C and it would be stored at a min. of + 15 °C and max. + 20°C) and air contact.

Ex.: Our Olive Olis analisys, year 2000

Ex.: Our Olive Olis analisys, year 2001

CONCLUSION

“ After having read al the information given, it is possible to understand how many factors can alter oil quality and how important is to trust in qualified experts. Indeed they can grant oil quality and naturalness, preserving us from buying a product of a low cost but often resulting from the mixture of different oils”.