Team:UC Davis/Legislation

A core tenet of our project is that the ethical problem of defective and mislabeled olive oil is a global issue, not a regional issue. The desired solution is one that helps all stakeholders, domestic and international. Accordingly, we believe that the success of the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) in implementing olive oil standards is a step forward in the common effort of bettering global olive oil management and quality.

As noted in the OOCC California State Standards in the introduction, tighter restrictions have already been placed on what can legally be labelled and sold as virgin and extra-virgin olive oil in California. For example, the benchmark for free fatty acid (FFA) content has now been set to 0.5 percent, lower than the more permissive international standard of 0.8 percent. Perhaps the most important long-term effect of the new standards is the potential for a reputable, California olive oil brand-name to emerge on the global markets. Brand-name recognition, a powerful driver of consumer opinion, may allow the Californian industry to clearly distinguish itself from the sale of inferior oils and engender consumer loyalty to a proven label. “The California olive industry will now be able to distinguish itself as the authentic, premium-quality, extra virgin olive oil producer to American consumers,” said Jeff Columbini, chair of the OOCC. “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” ("California Approves Olive Oil Standards,” 2014.). Accordingly, a new consumer protection measure was included in the standards proposal, requiring that olive oil be traceable through its various stages of processing.

As mentioned before, rancidity is most likely to affect imported olive oil products since transport and storage times are key factors leading to rancidity. It is, of course, possible that any olive oil producer or processor could willfully adulterate olive oil with rancid olive oil or even canola oil. Producers who adulterate their olive oil, or who sell old and rancid stock do so to save money, because filling larger quotas with lower quality product is more product than filling small quotas with higher quality product. Notwithstanding, since California olive oil producers serving the domestic market will not face the significant international transport challenge they will be more likely to produce a high quality product into the market. Assuming that the biosensor technology will be able to detect rancidity in imported olive oil products, it is likely that the domestic producers will be able to differentiate their product on quality and thus gain market penetration.