OLIVE OIL QUALITY AND EEC REGULATIONS

The law-makers' growing interest in the quality of olive oil is presen ted with comments on the modifications in the law in recent years. The Panel testing method by the International Olive Oil Council wa initia lly considered by the EEC as a good instrument for ensuring an improve d quality in virgin olive oils. Panel testing is discussed as a method useful for obtaining information that chemical and physical methods c annot give, and as a legal test. After some years of experience, we kn ow the weakness of the C.O.I. method and it is also possible to discus s its legal and economic consequences. A better knowledge of the quali ty of olive oils is needed in order to establish: what to do to improv e our understanding of consumer demands and to obtain a better olive o il quality; the kind of modification needed to improve the legal relia bility of the panel test.