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<pre>FREE Olive oil quality assessment course in Wagga Wagga coming up.

Assessment of olive oil for quality improvement, 21-22 March, Wagga Wagga

This is a 2 day commercially focussed course for people involved in the
production, processing, promotion and marketing of olive oils. This
course involves presentations and practical exercises on chemical and
sensory assessment of olive oil quality.

On oil chemistry, participants will gain understanding of the chemistry of
high quality olive oils, changes in chemistry that take place through the
ripening period and the impacts of time of harvest on oil quality.
Australian olive oils are profiled and recent research on shelf life and
time of harvest is presented. There is a practical exercise on measuring
free fatty acids and the course will cover aspects of production in
relation to olive oil quality, including irrigation management, pest
management, and harvest timing.

On Sensory assessment participants are introduced to sensory assessment of
olive oils, the main defects and their causes, practical exercises in
detecting and grading defects along with discussion sessions on commercial
aspects of olive oil quality. The emphasis of this course is to bring
participants attention to commercially focussed assessment of their olive
oils as opposed to the current industry emphasis on competition focussed
assessment.

Participants will be provided with a course manual that we have put
together for the course.

Trainers: Dr Rod Mailer leads the chemical assessment components of the
course. Dr Mailer is a Principle Research Scientist in oil chemistry with
NSW Agriculture based at Wagga Wagga Agricultural Institute. He has been
involved in the Australian olive industry in research and advisory roles
since 1996 and his laboratory at WWAI is currently one of two Australian
laboratories with IOOC accreditation for testing olive oil. He is
currently leading research projects looking at the impact of storage time,
harvest timing and irrigation management on olive oil quality.

Mauro Martelossi will lead the sensory assessment aspects of the course.
Mauro is an IOOC certified sensory expert and sensory panel trainer. He is
the International School of Oil Masters representative for Australia and
New Zealand. Mauro is a professional olive oil taster and blender and
brings to the course substantial commercial expertise in olive oil quality
assessment.

Damian Conlan, Horticulturist with NSW Agriculture, will cover production
issues in relation to their impact on oil quality.


This course is also funded by NSW Department of Education and Training and
is therefore provided free of charge. Participants can be assessed for
competencies in certificate 3 and 4 in laboratory skills if they so
choose.

We have run this course previously in Mudgee, Tamworth and Murrumbateman
and received very positive feed back from participants. The course is
timely in relation to the current state of industry development and
provides a good introduction to those endeavouring to begin marketing
their olive oils.
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Contact for bookings and catering information

Vici Murdoch, PH: 0419 390309 or
Damian Conlan PH: (02) 69512512, Email: damian.conlan@...

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