Extra virgin olive oil is not "merely" a healthy food, but something more: it is a medicinal food in the fullest sense of the term. This is according to the FDA, the Food and Drug Administration, which is responsible for regulating food and pharmaceutical products. The US body will henceforth allow producers to state on the label that a daily intake of 20 grams of extra virgin olive oil (around two tablespoons) provides a high quantity of oleic acid, which can reduce the risk of coronary heart disease. Numerous and well-established scientific findings – the FDA clarifies – demonstrate that favouring condiments with a high oleic acid content keeps cholesterol levels in the blood in check.

Why extra virgin olive oil is good for your health

But what are the characteristics that make extra virgin olive oil so beneficial? Michele Labarile, quality manager at Monini, reminds us that there are two European regulations (regulation 1924/2006 and regulation 432/2012) that specify precisely which health claims may be included on product labels. For olive oil, three are permitted.

The first, and most well-known, is the presence of polyphenols, effective natural antioxidants that protect our cells. An oil with a high polyphenol content has a bitter and pungent taste, like the one we perceive when we chew an olive. The second is the quantity of unsaturated and monounsaturated fatty acids, which in extra virgin olive oil reach an optimal balance. The latter in particular (which are a distinctive feature of olive oil, unlike the former, which are also found in seed oils) help to lower "bad" cholesterol (LDL) without affecting "good" cholesterol (HDL), and also allow olive oil to keep better over time. The third nutritional claim is the content of vitamin E, which in olive oil is bioavailable, meaning it can be easily absorbed by the body.

"These are the absolutely certain aspects, shared by the scientific community, approved by Efsa and which for that reason can be stated on the label," comments Labarile. "But there are many other beneficial properties attributable to the consumption of olive oils, and the hope is that Efsa will soon approve them, thereby allowing them to be cited on the label. In the meantime, what we can do is communicate the beneficial aspects of extra virgin olive oil to consumers, without forgetting that they should always be considered within the context of a varied and balanced diet. Those who know food well, also from a sensory and taste perspective, know how to give it the right value and therefore use it more appropriately." Paying attention to the health qualities of extra virgin olive oil, in fact, does not mean relegating sensory notes to the background. "Extra virgin olive oil can be a small work of art: it must be assessed as a whole; it cannot be reduced to a polyphenol count. There are also oils that are very rich in polyphenols but very crude."

The importance of stabilising extra virgin olive oil

Knowledge is essential for choosing the right extra virgin olive oil and incorporating it correctly into one's diet. It is therefore worth taking a step back to clarify one of the aspects most commonly misunderstood: the difference between filtered and unfiltered oils. At the end of the olive pressing process, the oil contains small particles of olive pulp and tiny emulsified droplets of water in suspension. These substances tend to settle on the bottom, becoming sediment and triggering degradation processes in the oil. Stabilising an oil means carrying out all those practices, both during processing and during storage, that make it possible to preserve the qualities of extra virgin olive oil for as long as possible. The oldest method is natural decantation: the sediment is left to settle for a few weeks and the oil is then decanted, taking advantage of the fact that these elements do not mix with one another. The second approach, more efficient and modern, is filtration.

"In recent years, consumers have shown a preference for unfiltered oils, which are presented with attributes such as natural, whole, coming directly from the mill. But these are misconceptions, because all oils come from the mill and any extra virgin olive oil, by law, presents no sensory defects at the panel test," comments Labarile. Alessandro Parenti, associate professor at the University of Florence, shares this view. "Filtration depletes the oil of minimal quantities of polyphenols and aromas, but it stabilises it and allows it to be preserved much better over time. A study of 52 subjects shows that, after ten days, the perceptual differences between a filtered and an unfiltered oil are nullified; after two months, consumers prefer the filtered one." Unfiltered oil – he concludes – should ideally be consumed immediately, before degradation processes set in.

To better illustrate his point, Professor Parenti gives us a preview of his latest scientific paper, currently awaiting publication. "We prepared culture media to measure the growth of micro-organisms. The latter developed only in the unfiltered oil and not in the filtered one. The water present in the raw oil, in fact, contains sugars: this causes micro-organisms to ferment and produce unpleasant aromas (off flavours) that the oil absorbs like a sponge." This finding provided a possible answer to a question that had long been asked. "As a taster, I used to wonder why the riscaldo or sediment defect was so common, usually caused by the fermentation of olives after harvesting or by processing errors. These seemed like far too glaring errors to be so widespread. In all probability, the phenomenon was actually occurring afterwards, in the oil that had been produced but not filtered." The next goal? To determine precisely when these defects arise.

Towards a culture of extra virgin olive oil

This does not mean that raw oils are dangerous; they simply require extra precautions. These oils, Labarile explains, must be extracted under the best conditions, must not be too rich in coarse fragments and vegetation water, and must be transferred into a tank before bottling. They must also be stored under appropriate conditions, at a temperature between 12 and 18 degrees and away from light. Personal taste also plays a role in choosing which bottle to put on the table. "If they prefer it, nothing stops consumers from choosing a raw oil: the important thing is that they do not believe that the absence of filtration is a guarantee ab origine of quality. It is simply a state of the raw material, one that requires greater care," he clarifies. "We need to build a culture, teaching people to speak not of oil but of oils, just as is done with wines," Parenti insists. Labarile, too, finds the wine metaphor particularly apt: "Depending on the raw materials, the skill of the miller, the equipment, and the care taken in storage, there will be oils comparable to grand crus, then there will be ordinary oils, and finally oils that have defects and cannot be classified as extra virgin. This principle holds true regardless of whether they are filtered or not."

Traffic-light labelling: the UN backtracks

Bringing clarity is also the objective of national and supranational authorities, grappling with an intricate question: how to guide consumers towards more informed purchasing decisions, and therefore a more informed diet? In recent years, the so-called traffic-light label has been trialled in various forms. The United Kingdom led the way, signalling in green, yellow or red — since 2013 — the quantity of each macro-category of nutrients present in 100 grams of a product (sugars, salt, fats and saturated fats, as well as calories). The Nutri-Score system, chosen by France in autumn 2017 and subsequently adopted by Belgium and Spain, instead assigns a single overall grade, reached by averaging potentially negative elements (such as salt) against beneficial ones (such as fibre). Sweden, Denmark and Norway opt instead for Green Keyhole, a symbol that identifies the healthiest foods. The big names of the food industry (Coca-Cola, Mars, Nestlé, Mondelez, Unilever and PepsiCo) had launched the Evolved Nutrition Label system, which was however heavily criticised because it did not take 100 grams of product as its reference point but rather a standard portion, defined autonomously by the company. The controversy persuaded first Mars and then Nestlé to backtrack on the experiment, which was subsequently suspended.

There is no denying that the traffic-light system is, in itself, very simple. Perhaps even too simple. A food such as extra virgin olive oil, being a fat, would automatically be penalised; never mind that it is the single best fat for human health. Grana Padano, Parmigiano Reggiano and, according to Coldiretti estimates, 85 per cent by value of Made in Italy products with a designation of origin (DOP) would suffer the same fate. Industrially processed products, whose recipes can be reformulated specifically to appear in a better light (for instance by replacing sugar with artificial sweeteners), would have a far easier ride. Italian diplomatic activity therefore played a particularly prominent role in the process that led to the United Nations General Assembly resolution on nutrition. A coalition of seven countries (France, Brazil, Norway, Indonesia, South Africa, Thailand and Senegal) had in fact proposed recommending the traffic-light label, accompanying it with restrictive measures for products deemed harmful, such as taxes and advertising restrictions. In the final text approved last 14 December, however, there is no trace of it.

Paolo De Castro ✓ @paolodecastro

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Buone notizie: risoluzione @UN su salute globale e nutrizione non menziona sistema di #etichettatura. Sventato pericolo di diffusione dei terribili semafori🚦che penalizzano le nostre eccellenze condizioni gli acquisti e non informano i consumatori. goo.gl/TSoobx

♥ 46 13 dic 2018 · Apri su X →

In short, it is back to the drawing board: to discourage the excessive consumption of unhealthy foods, another path will need to be found. "We hope it will be possible to reach, as soon as possible, a harmonised system for evaluating and qualifying the nutritional values of foods, capable of giving consumers truthful and complete information and that can be adopted in all member states. So as to achieve the goal that was set from the outset: to guarantee European citizens a uniform and effective food information tool," says Paolo De Castro, Member of the European Parliament and first vice-president of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development.

Far more challenging, but also more productive in the long term, would be working on information and food education. According to De Castro, a successful example is the European Union's programme for the distribution of fruit and milk in schools. Recently, "the establishment of a European day on the Mediterranean diet has also been proposed, precisely to make European consumers more aware of the positive impact it has on health but also on the environment," he continues. "I would also like to recall another element that is often overlooked in the debate on obesity and overweight, namely the positive correlation these phenomena have with income levels, as well as with education levels. The rise in obesity and overweight is also linked to growing economic insecurity among the middle class," he concludes. In summary, demonising a single product (or, conversely, presenting it as a panacea) is the quickest and most striking approach, but also the most simplistic. Diet is something far broader and more multifaceted than a green or red label to be applied to this or that food: it is a fundamental dimension of health, wellbeing, culture and social life.