Team:UC Davis/Policy Practices Overview

Olive oil fraud is an issue that affects many stakeholders, from consumers to olive growers. Developing effective methods for quality control, and understanding stakeholder needs is critical to solving this problem. We set aside our research several times throughout the summer to explore stakeholder needs and to better understand quality issues in the olive oil industry on a practical level. This led us to attend a public hearing at the State Capitol on the topic of new California standards, to understand demand for quality control amongst multiple groups of stakeholders. We also met with producers and millers at their production facilities to garner their perspective on how a biosensor could meet their respective needs. Lastly, to discover if the public would change buying habits in response to accessible quality control, we conducted several olive oil tastings at a local grocer and collected data. We synthesized our understanding of stakeholder needs in our final summary.

Throughout the summer we met with representatives from the largest producers of extra virgin olive oil in California: California Olive Ranch, Corto Olive Company, and Seka Hills Olive Company. We were able to tour their production facilities, and discuss the interests producers have in better quality control methods. We learned that if the olives are mishandled or the oil is stored improperly, becoming exposed to light or heat, it is possible for the oil to lose health benefits, such as antioxidants and monounsaturated fats. When the oil loses those compounds associated with health, it is considered to be rancid.

Therefore, it is important for producers to be able to test their oil for compounds indicative of rancidity. They informed us of the lack of fast, efficient and easy-to-use tools available for them to make measurements of the chemical composition within their olive oil. They verified that measuring the concentrations of certain aldehydes would be indicative of whether or not the oil has, in fact, become rancid. They currently perform quality measurements using GC-MS, which is an expensive machine that can take up to three weeks to obtain results. If there was a simpler scientific system made available to these producers to measure certain indicators of rancidity, it could allow for more consistent standards for industry. Our visits to these producers encouraged us to build a device capable of detecting rancid chemicals, specifically aldehydes, in olive oil.

To learn more about the Olive Mill Visits click here.

Throughout the summer we participated in several olive oil tastings hosted by the UC Davis Olive Center. At one in particular, the “Advanced Sensory Evaluation of Olive Oil Certification Course” we were educated on the positive and negative attributes of tasting olive oil, learning how to distinguish between characteristics such as, fusty, musty, fruity, bitter, and pungent. We also learned that extra virgin olive oil provides consumers with a unique blend of compounds offering improved metabolic, immune system, and physiological properties. However, the myriad of health benefits derived from olive oil are largely contingent upon the quality of the olive oil. The most important conditions contributing to the healthiness of olive oil are its being extra virgin, unadulterated, and in particular, not rancid (UC Davis Olive Center).

Using this information we decided to reach out to our community. We held an olive oil tasting at the Davis COOP where we asked consumers to taste three different extra virgin olive oils, one of which was rancid, and let them decide which one they would buy based on taste. Our goal was to educate them about how fresh extra virgin olive oil is supposed to taste as well as inform them about the health benefits associated with it. We also discussed how the oil will cease to provide health benefits once it has undergone oxidation, heating, or sun exposure. At that point, many of these useful compounds have degraded, rendering them functionally inactive. Through speaking with consumers, we learned that they would change their buying decisions if there were labels on the bottles indicating the quality of the oil. This inspired our decision to build a device to test for rancid chemicals in olive. In practice, we envision the biosensor being integrated into multiple commercial stages. The device could test olive juice before official pressing to ensure that the olive fruits were not already fermented due to poor handling. This could also occur during on-the-spot checks in the bottling process, and during periodical evaluations of distributor stock to identify potentially rancid inventory. Retailers could select random bottles from their shelves, test the oil for rancidity on the biosensor, and thus maintain high quality stock for customers.

To learn more about Public Perception click here.

A leading motivation for our project was the desire to bolster quality control standards in the olive oil industry by providing a cost-effective device for the detection of defective product. However, before we could tailor our project to meet the needs of the industry, we needed to learn more about the ways in which regional and multinational organizations monitor and dictate quality standards. On July 15, the CDFA organized a public hearing at the State Capitol to record evidence and testimony presented by olive growers, millers, and the general public on a set of standards proposed by the California Olive Oil Commission (COOC). Our team attended this hearing and learnt that an ongoing difficulty for the olive oil industry is getting public policy to more tightly define what constitutes rancidity, adulteration, and ultimately fraud.

We believe that our biosensor could enable producers to cheaply and rapidly test the quality of their olive oil stock, and thus to supply the market with only high quality olive oil, in compliance with the new California State standards.

To learn more about Legislation and California State Standards click here.