` Europe Endorses Olive Oil Standard Changes Despite Industry Divide - Olive Oil Times
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enEnglishfrFrançaiselελληνικάdeDeutscheitItalianozh-CN中文ptPortuguêsesEspañoltrTürkçehrHrvatskija日本語hiहिंदी

Europe Endorses Olive Oil Standard Changes Despite Industry Divide

By Ofeoritse Daibo
Jul. 8, 2025 19:09 UTC
Summary Summary

The European Union is endors­ing new olive oil trade stan­dards at a meet­ing of the International Olive Council in July to har­mo­nize inter­na­tional stan­dards and improve qual­ity assess­ments, despite con­cerns from some mem­ber states and indus­try stake­hold­ers. The changes include updat­ing mea­sure­ment meth­ods, adjust­ing sterol lim­its, and align­ing reg­u­la­tions with global stan­dards, with ongo­ing dis­cus­sions to address con­cerns about poten­tial dis­ad­van­tages for cer­tain olive-pro­duc­ing regions.

The European Union is set to endorse new olive oil trade stan­dards at an upcom­ing meet­ing of the International Olive Council (IOC) in July, despite con­cerns from some mem­ber states and indus­try stake­hold­ers. 

The changes, devel­oped in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the IOC, aim to har­mo­nize inter­na­tional stan­dards and enhance olive oil qual­ity and purity assess­ments, while tak­ing into account global pro­duc­tion and the impact of cli­mate change. 

In a deci­sion pub­lished in June 2025, the Council of the European Union said it will sup­port updat­ing the method for mea­sur­ing waxes and fatty acid ethyl esters, adding a method for deter­min­ing diglyc­erides and triglyc­erides; adding a foot­note to adjust the total sterols limit for Koroneiki and Nocellara del Belice mono­va­ri­etal oils, pend­ing fur­ther stud­ies; and remov­ing the test for halo­genated sol­vent traces.

See Also:Europe Tightens Restrictions on Hydrocarbons in Virgin Olive Oil

According to the coun­cil, the pro­posed adjust­ments will ensure fair com­pe­ti­tion and align E.U. reg­u­la­tions with global stan­dards. According to IOC data, the E.U. was respon­si­ble for 61 per­cent of inter­na­tional olive oil pro­duc­tion over the past half-decade.

However, not all stake­hold­ers are con­vinced. Some indus­try rep­re­sen­ta­tives argue that the new sterol com­po­si­tion require­ments, which revise the accept­able lev­els of delta (7)-stigmastenol, a nat­u­rally occur­ring com­pound in olive oil, could dis­ad­van­tage cer­tain European olive-pro­duc­ing regions.

Producers’ pri­mary con­cern is that sterol con­tent may fluc­tu­ate due to regional cli­mate, and some olive vari­eties might yield oils that fall out­side the new thresh­olds, even if they are oth­er­wise high-qual­ity extra vir­gin. 

They are fur­ther wor­ried that this could result in unfair dis­ad­van­tages for tra­di­tional pro­duc­ers in affected regions, poten­tially impact­ing their abil­ity to mar­ket their oils under cer­tain qual­ity clas­si­fi­ca­tions. Others are con­cerned that stricter reg­u­la­tions may increase com­pli­ance costs for smaller olive oil busi­nesses.

In response to these con­cerns, the IOC indi­cated that dis­cus­sions are still ongo­ing within rel­e­vant expert groups, and the mem­bers would exam­ine the issues when they meet at the 121st ses­sion of the Council of Members.

“We wel­come the updat­ing by the European Union of the olive oil stan­dard, which is the result of the close col­lab­o­ra­tion between our experts and the European author­i­ties,” said Mercedes Fernández, the head of research and stan­dard­iza­tion at the IOC.

Beyond its sig­nif­i­cant role in pro­duc­tion, the E.U. is also the lead­ing exporter and con­sumer of olive oil. 

The 27-mem­ber bloc was respon­si­ble for 45 per­cent of olive oil con­sump­tion over the past half-decade. Meanwhile, E.U. coun­tries also shipped 63 per­cent of global olive oil exports over the same period.

Fernández noted that the changes to the stan­dard were agreed ini­tially as part of the E.U.’s June 2024 deci­sion to align its mar­ket­ing stan­dards for olive oil with those of the IOC.

“This devel­op­ment marks a sig­nif­i­cant step,” Fernández said. ​“The IOC will con­tinue to work to ensure that its stan­dards serve as a global ref­er­ence, safe­guard­ing prod­uct authen­tic­ity and pro­tect­ing con­sumers.”

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