19 Oct

Californian vs European Olive Oils Challenge

American food lovers have long taken for granted that only olive oils from the Mediterranean are worth buying preferably with an olive tree, an Italian flag and some words like “authentic cold pressed” on the bottle.    

07 Oct

Olive oil tasting event at Kendall College of Culinary Arts

  Kendall College of the Culinary Arts in Chicago hosted yesterday a unique event showcasing one of the most essential products in the kitchen: olive oil. Proceeds to benefit Common Threads.     The event hosted by world-renowned olive oil expert, Alfonso J. Fernandez features a presentation, olive oil tasting, tapas and wine all set in [...]

04 Oct

Spanish Olive Oil Expert Partners with Top Los Angeles Chef for an Exclusive Tasting

Olive Oil From Spain announces today plans to host an exclusive tasting and dinner with olive oil expert, Alfonso J. Fernandez and restaurant owner, John Rivera Sedlar, at Sedlar’s Los Angeles restaurant, Playa. Fernandez, a fifth generation olive farmer and olive oil producer, will travel to Los Angeles from Spain to treat key city influencers [...]

03 Oct

Olive harvest season in Spain

  In September Spain traditionally begins harvesting of table olives. Harvest will last until November and will end by the olive festival. Olives is the pearl of the Mediterranean. In Russia the olives from the sunny Spain are very popular and are appreciated for its good taste. Due to the wide diversity of varieties and [...]

03 Oct

New test to detect color adulteration of green olives

Researchers from the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) have proposed a new procedure for the detection of illegal color additives in green olives.   Writing in the academic journal LWT – Food Science and Technology, the Spanish researchers noted that because certain processing techniques alter the color of olives, certain manufacturers add a food [...]

03 Jun

Spanish & Italian Olive Oil fraud’s adulteration

By Andrew Weil, Q: I understand that a magazine reported that a lot of the olive oil from Italy is adulterated with lesser oils and described ongoing fraud in the olive oil business. Do you have any information about this? A: I have read the article you mention, it reports that fraud remains a major [...]

11 May

Spanish olive oil producers get support from the EU to expand export markets

In an effort to avoid the local drop in sales, Spanish wine and olive oil producers decided to join forces and boost the export market over the next year through promotion and marketing campaign also supported by the Spanish government and EU with a budget between 18 and 45 million euros. The export market of [...]

02 May

SOS Cuetara’s top execs fired, shares suspended

by Tracy Rucinski & Rodrigo de Miguel, Spain’s SOS Cuetara (SOS.MC), the world’s biggest olive oil bottler, said on Thursday it had fired its two top executives after discovering last month they had used company funds to buy SOS shares. “SOS Group’s board, which met today, has fired Jesus and Jaime Salazar Bello as chairman [...]

09 Apr

SOS Cuetara to sell Dante olive oil brand for EUR34m

Food group SOS Cuetara has agreed to sell its olive oil brand Dante and the other brands of its Minerva Oli unit to Italian sector player Mataluni for some EUR34m (USD45.6m). The transaction, scheduled for completion in July, is in line with SOS Cuetara’s disinvestment programme. Dante has annual sales of some 10 million litres [...]

03 Apr

SOS Cuetara to sell Dante Olive Oil and Minerva Oli to Mataluni

Spanish food group SOS Cuetara has agreed to sell its olive oil brand Dante and the other brands of its Minerva Oli unit to Italian sector player Mataluni for some EUR34m (US$45.6m) The transaction, scheduled for completion in July, is in line with SOS Cuetara’s disinvestment programme. Dante has annual sales of some 10 million [...]

12 Mar

Two Mediterranean Olive Oil Families Form an Alliance

Over 90% of all the olive oil in the world comes from groves in the Mediterranean region. Now two of the most prominent families from the region, Devico and Moreno, have formed an alliance to bring more high quality olive oil to the United States and the world. Among the key beneficiaries of the alliance [...]

08 Mar

Olive oil to show country of origin

By Zoë Casey, All olive oils, from Spain’s golden nutty olive oils to Italy’s dark green grassy-flavoured olive oils, will be labelled with their country of origin from 1 July 2009, the European Commission said today. Currently, olive oils are labelled with their country of origin on a voluntary basis, but Mariann Fischer Boel, the [...]

22 Dec

Spain: Adulterated olive oil warning in La Roija

The Guardia Civil in La Rioja has warned about the possible sale of adulterated olive oil in the area. 550 litres of oil has been found in large container labelled ‘Astispumante 1510’ and it comes after the theft of 1,750 litres of oil was reported in the area on December 18. The oil was found [...]

17 Dec

Phenols in Quality Olive Oil Suppress Breast Cancer Gene

Good quality extra-virgin olive oil contains health-relevant chemicals, ‘phytochemicals’, that can trigger cancer cell death. New research published in the open access journal BMC Cancer sheds more light on the suspected association between olive oil-rich Mediterranean diets and reductions in breast cancer risk. Javier Menendez from the Catalan Institute of Oncology and Antonio Segura-Carretero from [...]

10 Dec

Olive harvest unaffected by snow in Spain

Snow falling across Spain has not harmed the olive crop in the world’s largest producer or significantly slowed the ongoing harvest, a farm union said. Spanish television has broadcast pictures in recent days of snowbound olive pickers in southern region Andalucia, which accounts for most of Spain’s olive oil output and by itself far surpasses [...]