Historic Olive Oil Vs Modern ‘Virgin’ Olive Oils

Mark Dymiotis

HISTORIC OLIVE OIL – natural, pure and simple

Since time immemorial, olive oil has been a genuine, simple and healthy part of the Mediterranean diet (MedDiet). It has reliably helped the successful implementation of this diet as a flavouring aid. But … not anymore.

Major features of the traditional olive oil were its simplicity, its flavour enhancing properties and being a nutrition provider for the healthy, low cost and pro-environment MedDiet. Traditionally, it was produced by small producers using a communal press – commonly associated with the church. Although the olive harvesting was slow and carried out under adverse winter weather conditions, the olive oil was a genuine olive fruit juice which has served the healthy MedDiet well.

For quality olive oil and for maximum yield the olives were harvested when the colour of most of the olives on the tree had, or were beginning to change colour from green to black. After stone-crushing the olives, the olive paste was pressed to obtain the olive fruit juice consisting of olive oil and wastewater. If warm water was used for a ‘second pressing’, even though the olive oil was very good, it was demoted to a ‘second press’. Natural decantation separated the olive oil from the wastewater. Being lighter, the olive oil floats to the top and is easily collected.

As the olives were produced naturally (organically) from non-irrigated trees, the olives were stone-crushed and the olive paste was mixed naturally during the slow stone crushing. The olive paste was pressed without use of water and no filtering took place. Produced like this, the olive oil was rich in flavour, nutrients and antioxidants (called polyphenols). Polyphenols, in addition to their nutritional benefits, protect the olive oil against oxidation enabling a long storage life. As Professor Paul Kyritsakis said, “polyphenols are the olive oil’s natural shields.” The traditional press method, although laborious, was simple and the best way to produce high quality Olive oil (OO).

A recent study by Lopez-Yerena et.al[1], has established that significantly higher (more than 26%) levels of polyphenols were found in organic olives compared to olive oil from conventionally grown olives. However, as the olive paste of the organic olives was subjected to hot water during the mixing, this percentage would have been higher for the historic olive oil where there was no need to mix the olive paste. A reasonable assumption would also suggest that the historic olive oil (being produced from naturally grown olives and without irrigation) would have been much richer in polyphenols than the modern Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO).

Tasting the new olive oil was done at the press – the Greeks using bread and the Italians pasta. Any olive oil showing small defects was consumed first – a practice which eliminates waste. Unlike the modern preoccupation for fresh olive oil, the historic olive oil was stored for a few weeks/months to soften its strong bitter taste.

It was common practice to successfully store enough olive oil for two years – just in case the following year’s production was inadequate. If the following year’s olive oil was not as good, they kept the old olive oil and sold the new. Interestingly, in ancient Athens, olive oil was stored for up to three years and was offered as a trophy to the winners of the Pan-Athenian Games, held every four years.

While the historic olive oil was one of the smallest ingredients of the traditional diet, it was a significant flavour-enhancer and health provider for the predominantly plant-food based MedDiet. Unlike recent practices, the olive oil was a relatively low-cost ingredient and always an excellent source of nutrients and flavour for this diet.

Notable facts

• Best olive oil comes from non-irrigated naturally grown stone-crushed olives. The olive paste is pressed without the use of water and decanted naturally (again without use of water) and is unfiltered. Such OO lasts longer than a year.
• Spain is by far the largest producer of olive oil – followed by Italy which is reputed to be the largest exporter and importer of olive oil. Being good salesmen, the Italians buy olive oil from other countries and sell it on its own or blended with other olive oils.
• Greece, although a distant third, is best at producing extra virgin olive oil, arguably because production is in the hands of individuals and local organisations.
• Historically, olive oil was nutritious and a vital flavouring ingredient. It was a significant part of the predominantly plant food MedDiet.
• Olive oil can now flavour the emerging vegetarian and vegan diets.
• The epidemiological cardiology ‘Seven Countries Study’ began in 1956 and quickly established that the rich in olive oil traditional diets of rural areas of the Mediterranean were healthy, with a long-life expectancy and protective against chronic disease. Professor Ancel Keys, the leader of this study, introduced the term “Mediterranean diet” to describe the dietary practices of this region in the 1950s. The term was formalised in the 1990s – although by this time major changes to the traditional MedDiet had taken place. Indeed, in 1995, Keys had this to say, “In Crete, in the 1950s, coronary heart disease was a medical rarity; now Crete has a medical school and coronary heart disease is no longer confined to medical textbooks.[2]”

Traditionally, there was only one type of olive oil (called just oil in Greek). This term indicated a genuine olive fruit juice and although it was a pure virgin, it was not called ‘virgin’, let alone ‘extra virgin’. Very defective olive oil was called lampante and was used as fuel.

MODERN OLIVE OIL – deception/misinformation

In recent times, much deception and misinformation regarding olive oil has taken place. In researching and teaching the practical aspects of the MedDiet, olive oil included, I have observed massive confusion about olive oil. Even the media, academia, and authorities, including the European Union (EU), are apparently confused and/or not aware of the industry’s misleading, deceptive and confusing regulations and practices.

The olive oil industry promotes ‘freshest’ and ‘best’ Extra Virgin Olive Oil without advising that antioxidants are reduced due to modern production practices.

A better approach would be the return of the antioxidant-rich olive oil of the naturally healthy Mediterranean diet – a true ‘virgin’ oil, without the boasting.

Recent developments

The establishment of the International Olive Oil Council (IOOC) in the 1950s has brought massive production and marketing changes:

1. The historic term olive oil is now called virgin olive oil, with varying degrees of ‘virginity’ (extra, fine, and semi-fine virgin). Due to the now allowable production practices that lead to the reduction of polyphenols, extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) is anything but virgin.
2. The old slow but effective stone-crushing of the olives has been replaced by fast but inefficient steel crushers – necessitating mixing the olive paste with warm water resulting in polyphenol loss.
3. The laborious but advantageous press system has been replaced with the fast centrifugation decanters, which require warm water to operate effectively, leading to more polyphenol loss.
4. To remove impurities, the olive oil is passed through another decanter with more warm water, causing further polyphenol loss.
5. The olive oil is filtered, a process that also contributes to polyphenol
6. The most notable and very misleading development is that lampante olive oil is thermally and chemically processed to obtain a highly refined olive oil (colourless, tasteless, and odourless). This refined oil is then blended with a small quantity of virgin olive oil and deceptively traded as ‘olive oil’. Apparently, consumers, academics, and the EU, are either unaware or overlook such a scandalous development.
7. Amazingly, even the ‘best’ prize winning EVOOs are now subjected to polyphenol losses. Also surprising is that while in earlier times the use of a small quantity of water demoted the olive oil to second press, nowadays, the use of much larger quantities of warm water, followed by filtering, have not only been legitimised by the IOC and accepted by the EU, but they have become the norm.
8. The modern – now customary – use of pesticides, synthetic fertilisers, and machinery lubricants have created a risk of contaminants permeating the olive oil.
9. Unlike the traditional simple taste evaluation of the olive oil, the evaluation test is now in the hands of expensive, but subjective by nature, olive oil tasting panels – the most famous being the New York Olive Oil Competition which is unaffordable for small producers. Once the olive oil wins a prize, it becomes exceedingly expensive, making it unaffordable for the multi-beneficial MedDiet. Another drawback is that modern marketing practices disadvantage small producers, who, anecdotally, produce better quality olive oil.
10. Despite the convenience of using low-cost fossil fuels to power the modern olive oil production machinery, olive oil is unjustifiably expensive.
11. It is well-known within the industry that olive oil from very large producers is This is possibly from the use of very large storage containers and the associated heavy pumping. Indeed, an unpublished analysis of olive oil samples taken from the retail market alongside two samples of olive oil sent to Greek and Italian migrants from relatives in their native countries, found these two samples performed better than their retail counterparts – presumably because the olive oil was produced by small producers and unfiltered.
12. The olive oil industry highlights the modern substantial lowering of the acidity levels of the olive oil but keeps quiet about the unnecessary loss of antioxidants (the known and the still yet unknown) from the modern production practices. 

The modern quest for best, freshest, lowest acidity levels and greenest olive oil is typical of modern marketing practices highlighting real or presumed positives and downplaying or ignoring negatives, hidden complexities, and falsehoods. Perhaps the olive oil industry and those who purport to regulate it should ponder what is the point of aiming for ‘best’ olive oil, when it suffers from antioxidant loss, is too expensive for use in the multi-beneficial MedDiet. While the modern very low acidity levels of OO are welcomed it must be noted that the OO of the healthy MedDiet did not have the very low acidity levels of today.

My confusing and contradictory advice to my students and readers alike is:

• The historic naturally produced genuine olive oil is the best, but non-existent nowadays.
• The modern misleading term ‘olive oil’ denotes an industrially produced and refined olive oil!
• Virgin olive oil is not as genuine as the industry suggests. It comes with reduced polyphenols from modern industrial production practices.

Government authorities and industry leaders are called upon to urgently address inaccurate, misleading, and deceitful olive oil terminology and practices.

International Olive Council AND THE EU – malpractices

The speeding up of the production process and the abandonment of sound traditional practices, together with aggressive, misleading and deceptive marketing, have brought confusing and compromised OO quality developments. Regrettably, such malpractices have been accepted by the EU.

Comments and observations

• By accepting the olive oil industry’s misguided practices and regulations, the EU has become an obstacle to the implementation of the multi-beneficial MedDiet.
• The modern irrigation and fertilising of the olive trees, the use of fast olive crushers (especially the mild steel ones), the use of warm water at various stages of production and the filtering of the olive oil, have downgraded the oil quality.
• The scandalous changing of the historic term olive oil to represent highly refined olive oil is reprehensible.
• The sale of olive oil in large quantities should be encouraged – not restricted by modern regulations. Done correctly, it will lead to lower costs and longer OO storage life for successful implementation of the healthy MedDiet.

Olive oil quality

While the olive oil industry highlights very low acidity levels, freshness (questionable), and a high taste score which is subjective, it fails to highlight other, more important quality parameters.  Olive oil should:

• Maintain its natural character – without needless loss of antioxidants.
• Be free of modern contaminants e.g., from machinery lubricants, pesticides, fertilisers, chlorine, and iron traces that act as catalysts for oxidation.
• Be unadulterated.
• Be produced and used with minimal environmental impact e.g. the olives are grown naturally with minimal irrigation and the olive oil is traded in large quantities which means less packaging, better protection of the olive oil and lower cost for easier implementation of the healthy, low cost and pro-environment traditional MedDiet.

The power of misleading marketing

Seed oils (also called vegetable oils) are industrially produced by high thermal and chemical treatment and are bleached – leading to total loss of their natural antioxidants. Additionally, the high use of non-renewable energy resources makes seed oils cheaper but unfriendly to the environment.

As Gillespie[3] reports, seed oils are associated with Alzheimers, Parkinson’s, cancer and heart disease.  Yet, seed oils, with their lower prices and aggressive and deceptive marketing, dominate the market.

Furthermore, the failure of government authorities to establish well-thought-out policies and regulations has allowed the seed oil industry to influence the definition of oils. Paradoxically, under Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) regulations, the genuine olive oil receives a lower star rating than the highly refined industrially produced seed oils. It is reprehensible that the natural olive oil, with its well-established health record, has been rated lower than these highly refined seed oils!

These deceiving and dishonest developments extend to other traditional foods:

• The historic term ‘bread, another icon of the MedDiet,’ is now reserved for a concoction of highly refined ingredients. As the leader of the Lyon study, Professor de Lorgeril suggests: “The bread we eat today is definitely not the bread our grandparents ate. … For some experts, the gluten and wheat hypersensitivity syndromes observed in recent times are definitely the consequences of modern wheat types.[4]”
• Even the plain, simple and humble olives, have been adulterated. Traditionally, green olives were naturally processed with salt which, in addition to removing the bitterness, facilitates the desirable natural lactic acid fermentation – good for healthy eating and for successful storage. Nowadays, the market is flooded with chemically debittered green olives that are sold either as green, but without the beneficial lactic acid fermentation, or darkened chemically which not only destroys their nutrient content, as Hoffman and Gerber report, it creates acrylamide[5], a carcinogenic compound.

Consumers are entitled to know about such developments!

Again, policy makers and regulatory authorities, are called upon to urgently address such anomalies!

What needs to be done

The EU and other authorities are called upon to:

1. Ensure that the oil industry values and promotes natural olive oil.
2. Address linguistic vandalism – a powerful instrument for misleading and deceptive marketing, where:

• Refined ‘olive oil’ masquerades as olive oil.
• ‘Cold pressed olive oil’ is neither cold nor pressed.
• Virgin OO is neither a virgin nor the historical genuine OO of the MedDiet.

3. Misleading and deceptive marketing that highlights real or presumed advantages and overlooks or downplays negatives and hidden complexities should urgently be addressed by regulatory authorities.
4. Ensure that regulations are evidence based and free from lobbyists’ influence.
5. Encourage consumers to get their annual supplies of olive oil in bulk – the same way it has been done successfully over the millennia.
6. Protect consumers against the recent futile and counterproductive quest for best, greenest – and freshest olive oil.
7. Restore genuine olive oil to its former status as a major food flavouring aid of the Mediterranean countries.

Breach of sound practices

The historic olive oil that has contributed to the Mediterranean diet was produced:

• From naturally grown olives – non-irrigated, non-fertilised and without use of pesticides.
• By stone crushing the olives.
• By pressing the olive paste.
• By decanting the olive oil naturally – without use of water.
• Without filtering the olive oil.

Olive oil produced without modern unhelpful developments, is rich in flavours and antioxidants and can be stored very well for over a year. Historically, each family stored its olive oil annually – their own or bought.

Modern production practices are industry dominated with profit, image building and marketing in mind. However, while the industry claims best, healthiest and purest olive oil, it:

• Legitimises practices that compromise the olive oil’s quality.
• Engages in linguistic vandalism where the term olive oil denotes a highly refined oil; and the term EVOO denotes, in the main, an olive oil with reduced polyphenols. 

Regulators, policy makers and planners are called to ensure that:

• Linguistic vandalism is addressed. Traditional olive oil was healthy, low cost and free of modern misleading, deceptive, and unethical marketing. Modern marketing highlights real or presumed advantages and overlooks or downplays disadvantages and hidden complexities.
• Facts and sound historic olive oil practices should guide policies and regulation. Not pollsters, lobbyists and powerful special interest groups.

From a flavouring aid of the healthy Mediterranean, olive oil has now become a marketing tool for profit-making.

Acknowledgements:

Thank you to Kerry Petropoulos for acting as an initial sounding board and constantly urging me to finish this document and for being patient with the endless modifications, additions and changes, Jan McTaggart and Anna Coveos for going through it several times for corrections and valuable suggestions, Antonis Nicola for the formatting, valuable suggestions and comments and to Rachael Freeland for the final editing. Any omissions or mistakes are mine.

[1] Molecules 2019, 24, 1986; doi:10.3390/molecules24101986

[2] Keys A.  Mediterranean diet and public health:  personal reflections.  The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.  1995;61(6):1321S-3

[3] Gillespie, D (2012). Big Fat Lies: How the diet industry is making you sick, fat and poor.  Penguin Viking.

[4] Lorgeril Md, Salen P.  Gluten and wheat intolerance today: are modern wheat strains involved? International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition 2014;65(5):577-81.

[5] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26393643/