Shoppers Liked the Faulty Oils, UC Davis Study Finds
In a study from the UC Davis Olive Center, 74 percent of ordinary shoppers disliked the olive oils that expert tasters rated highest, and 44 percent liked oils with clear defects such as rancidity and mustiness. It is the first study of its kind in California, and it is more useful than a scandal. Here is what it tested, what it found, and what it tells you about your own palate.
What was tested
The sensory scientists Claudia Delgado and Jean-Xavier Guinard asked 110 consumers in northern California to taste and rate 22 commercial oils sold as extra virgin, half of them imported and half from California. The same oils were described by a trained panel and rated by experts. The paper comparing the two appears in the journal Food Quality and Preference.
The question was simple: do consumers like what experts call good? The answer was no. Expert quality ratings turned out to be a poor predictor of how much consumers liked an oil. What the consumers liked was fruitiness of the mild kind, described as nutty, ripe fruit, green tea, butter, green fruit and grassy. What put them off was bitterness and pungency, the two attributes that mark a fresh, phenol rich oil.
The uncomfortable part
Almost half the group, 44 percent, also liked oils carrying defects: rancid, fusty, musty and winey. Those are not matters of taste in the trade, they are faults with causes. Rancidity is oxidation, usually age, heat or light. Fusty comes from olives left in piles to ferment before milling. Winey is fermentation of another kind. Musty is mold.
The authors suggest the obvious explanation, and it is the one that should bother the industry. So much of the oil sold as extra virgin in American supermarkets carries these defects that shoppers have learned them as the normal taste of olive oil. You cannot miss what you have never had.
| Finding | Share of the 110 consumers |
|---|---|
| Disliked the oils rated high quality by experts | 74 percent |
| Liked at least one defective oil | 44 percent |
| Preferred mild fruity notes | Most of the panel |
What to do with this if you are buying
Dan Flynn of the Olive Center reads it as a job for education rather than a verdict on consumers, and says a bitter profile is not necessarily a bad thing. That is right, and it is also the industry’s self interest speaking, since California oils are typically fresh, bitter and pungent.
The practical version for a shopper is this. Bitterness and a peppery catch at the back of the throat are not flaws. They come from the same phenolic compounds that make the oil keep well and that the health research is interested in. A flat, greasy, slightly stale oil is not milder, it is older. Your palate can be retrained in a week by tasting two oils side by side, which costs nothing but the price of the second bottle.
The other lesson is for producers who follow the customer. If 44 percent of buyers like defects, then selling defective oil is not a marketing risk in the short run. It is only a risk when someone tests the bottle and prints the result.
Nobody in the trade is surprised by this study. Buyers for large retailers have known for years that the taste most shoppers reach for is not the freshest oil in the room, and blends are built toward that preference on purpose: soft, a little sweet, no pepper, no bite. It is not illegal to sell a mild oil. It becomes a problem when mildness is being achieved by using tired oil and calling it extra virgin, because then the label is paying for what the flavor gave away.
Sources
- Olive Oil Times, Quality Olive Oil a Taste Not Yet Acquired by Most Consumers
- Delgado and Guinard, How do consumer hedonic ratings for extra virgin olive oil relate to quality ratings by experts, Food Quality and Preference, 2011