New standards include more precise methods
After spending the summer analyzing the information collected during the hearing, the department decided to implement the proposed standards, with just a few exceptions.
“The California olive industry will now be able to distinguish itself as the authentic, premium-quality, extra virgin olive oil producer to American consumers,” Jeff Columbini, chair of the OOCC said in a release. “Consumers will now be able to know that when they are purchasing and consuming California extra virgin olive oil, it truly is 100 percent extra virgin olive oil.”
The new standards include more precise methods for testing adulteration, known as PPP and DAGs, and the banning of misleading marketing terms for refined oils such as “light” and “pure.” The benchmark for free fatty acidity (FFA) is set to 0.5 percent, below the international standard of 0.8 percent.
The only proposed standards that failed to make the cut were purity parameters that were less strict than those already in place in the California Health and Safety Code, and another that attempted to regulate the labeling of food ingredients.
The proposal suggested that when olive oil is used as an ingredient in prepared food, the label must specify the grade used. However, that type of regulation was found to be beyond the scope of the standards as well as beyond the authority of the California Marketing Act.