Bozzano Olive Ranch - Napa Valley Register: "Bill seeks olive oil purity"

By MIKE TRELEVEN
Register Business Editor
Napa Valley extra virgin olive oil producers don’t want to leave a bad taste in consumers’ mouths.

Adulterated olive oil, which is diluted with sunflower, hazel nut, walnut oil — and with lower quality olive oil — is reaching the pantries of unsuspecting consumers. California’s burgeoning industry wants to make sure consumers get what they pay for.
State Sen. Patricia Wiggins, D-Santa Rosa, is pushing a bill to require California olive oil producers to conform to standards for extra virgin olive oil based on International Olive Council regulations. The state’s current definition of olive oil has not been updated since 1947 and does not have standards for extra virgin olive oil.

In Napa County, about 233 acres of olive trees that produce 995 tons worth $633,700, according to the 2007 Agricultural Crop Report issued by the Napa County Agricultural Commissioner’s office.
Gordon Valley olive oil producer Bill Wolf has taken an active role in establishing olive oil standards. He has served on the California Olive Oil Council board of directors.

“What we are trying to do is set a standard the public can trust and rely upon no matter where the oil comes from,” said Wolf.
“Would you like to pay for an olive oil labeled extra virgin from Napa Valley only to find out the oil came from Sacramento, (and) is not extra virgin (but) has walnut oil in it? That is the kind of thing that is going on right now,” Wolf added.

“This is a very important issue for our industry, which is growing very fast. We need to have labeling standards that the public can depend upon just like we do for wine.

“We do need to have standards. The industry has been pushing for this for a long time,” Wolf said. “The consumer should be able to depend on what is on the label as to what is in the bottle.”

Wolf has about 300 trees of Italian varietals from cuttings he bought from the McEvoy Ranch near Petaluma. He produces 50 to 70 cases of oil each year that sell under the label AlphaWOLF Olive Oil.

Ted Hall, owner of Long Meadow Ranch in the Mayacamas Mountains above Rutherford, strongly supports efforts to set standards for extra virgin olive oil.

“This is an essential step to provide consumer protection,” Hall said. “The United States is remiss in not becoming a member of the International Olive Oil Council, which sets standards that are strictly enforced.”

He sees Wiggins’s bill as an effort to jump-start the process that may eventually include standards being established at the federal level. Hall recalled it was California that was at the forefront of developing guidelines for the organic labeling movement in the 1980s — before there were federal standards.

“Most people don’t know there are no federal or state standards that effectively require the honest labeling of extra virgin olive oil,” said Hall, who has about 30 acres of olive trees. “This is something olive oil producers have been wanting for a long time.”

The Berkeley-based California Olive Oil Council also supports SB 634.

The COOC was organized in 1992 with about 81 members — producing 123,000 gallons. Today it has mushroomed into 350 producers squeezing out 750,000 gallons of extra virgin olive oil.

“The past two years we have seen phenomenal growth,” said Patricia Darragh, executive director of the one-person council, which was founded by the late Lila Jaeger, of Rutherford Hill Winery in the Napa Valley.

“This would promote accurate labeling of olive oil and would help ensure consumers and retailers are making accurate and informed choices,” Darragh said.

The COOC has a certified quality control program.

To earn seal certification, oil must be mechanically extracted from olives without chemicals or excessive heat, have less than .5 percent free oleic acid, and have positive taste elements and no taste defects, which is determined during a blind tasting.

Deborah Rogers, managing partner of The Olive Press, at the Oxbow Public Market, said the bill puts all producers on alert.

“We are very excited about this. We hope the USDA follows through with proposed standards for grades of olive oil. This puts it in black and white of what to look for,” Rogers said.

Rogers is optimistic federal rules will follow once California leads the way. “Once we adopt standards, that should help the feds get on board.”

Rachel Casey, of Poplar Hill Olive Oil, on Spring Mountain Road, near St. Helena said if the Wiggins bill passes, it would become effective Jan. 1.

Casey echoed the opinion that consumers need to know what they are buying.

“The California Olive Oil Council has been at the forefront of this issue. It is exciting. Right now we are not being regulated in any way.

With a seal certifying it is extra virgin olive oil in the bottle “consumers can be confident what they are buying is extra virgin olive oil and where it is coming from,” said Casey, who farms 88 olive trees with her husband, Dr. William Casey.

Ryan MacDonnell, one of the owners of Round Pond, said, “Anything that can bring clarity to consumer on the olive oils available out there on the shelf is a good thing.”

MacDonnell said Round Pond helps educate consumer by doing daily tours at their facility near Rutherford on Rutherford Crossroad. “For us this is a huge help.”

“Since there is not a lot of regulations, it has been difficult for consumers,” she added.

Round Pond, which has 12 acres of olive trees, puts the COOC seal on its extra virgin olive oil bottles. “It is one way for consumers to have confidence that what they are getting is extra virgin olive oil.”

“We support anything that enforces standards and makes sure consumers get what they think they are paying for.”