Hi I read a lot about infused olive oil. I wonder just what grade is mainly used
for this type of product.

Does it hide the flavour of the oil?

I know a lot of people rather like the infused oil. How do I infuse virgin
olive oil. Is there a limit to the flavours that you can add?

Does it attract GST on the sale?

Where can I find out all about infusing this oil.

Terry

Hi Terry,

infused are manly produced using extra virgin olive oil. It's
particularly important to use extra virgin because with the herbs you
introduce enzymes and chlorophyl that will increase the rate of
chemical degradation of the oil. Extra virgin with it's content of
polyphenols can some how minimise this effect, but the expiration date
should be set only to six months because your still increasing the oils
rate rancydification.
Infused oil is produced just by putting in the same bottle the herb and
the oil and waiting (or whooping) the flavours get in the oil. Only
dried herbs should be used, because if you use fresh ones there is a
risk of foodborne botulism, since ultra-pasteurization isn't an option.

In my personal opinion infused oils aren't of any practical use in the
kitchen, they're just about marketing the oil. They don't get that
much flavoured and do to they're low stability they rapidly get a
rancid flavour.
If you want to cook with herb flavoured oils, these should be made
immediately before use, by infusing the herbs and the oil in a
bain-marie for 10 to 15 min.

Regards,

João

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<pre>We produce our own estate blend of extra virgin olive
oil from several varieties of 150 year old trees as
well as producing another blend from our own grove and
e.v. olive oil produced from other selected groves.
Blending extra virgin olive oil requires some skill
and experience to achieve the desired flavour profile.
We also produce some infused e.v olive oils and the
process is much the same. We never put any herbs or
solids in the bottle. The quality and style of oil
used is always extra virgin. We produce our infused
oils by adding a small quantity of concentrated
infused extra virgin olive oil to a much larger
quantity of extra virgin olive. We infuse oils with
chilli, garlic, lemon myrtle, ginger and even
parmessan cheese. We don't put any uncooked herbs,
garlic etc in the oil so as to avoid botulism. By
using dry ingredients we avoid the risk of botulism or
by cooking fresh ingredients in e.v olive oil to kill
bacteria and remove water we achieve the same result.
We make infused oils in smaller batches.
Flavours are imparted in the infusion process and then
the small concentrated infusion is added back to the
much larger proportion of non infused e.v. olive oil
until we achieve the desired flavour concentration.

Tony

Dear Antony, Joao, Terry and others,

It may be of interest to you that infused oils of any form cannot be
marketed as Extra Virgin Olive Oil (or even Olive Oil), as per the IOOC
definitions of these products, which clearly state that they should
derive "solely from the fruit of the olive".

(To the established members of this esteemed group, I apologise for
harping on this subject).

I have taken this matter up with the Director of the IOOC about a year
ago, and received a prompt and unequivocal reply as to the status quo.
Infused products should, according to the IOOC, be marketed as
"Seasonings", with "olive oil" or "extra virgin olive oil" merely being
stated as an ingredient.

This sounds a bit harsh, but it is aimed at preventing the adulteration
of olive oil with anything whatsoever. The question to ask is: are we
going to bother about IOOC definitions, or not (whether we are
affiliated with them, or otherwise). My own opinion is that there should
very definitely be reliable international definitions for these
products. We are, after all, using the IOOC grades and other
nomenclature (extra virgin, virgin, pure, pomace oil, etc.) on our
labels in competing on world markets, so I think it is a bit cheeky to
select only those rules and regulations that suit us, and disregard
those that don't.

I am not a fan of the word "extra virgin", because it seems to be rather
meaningless in the English language. Maybe the Spanish translation has a
more attainable meaning. Or maybe the Spanish have highly superior
morals...

I've heard of Extra Virgin olive oils ostensibly having been made from
very, very ugly olives, or even from olives that haven't been stuffed,
but generally it is a bit of a quaint term to say the least.

I do agree with Joao insofar as infused oils are really a marketing
gimmick, and inherently contra to everything we are aiming to do in
terms of producing a top quality "extra virgin". It seems absolutely
crazy to spoil something that can indubitably stand very firmly on its
own two feet (in terms of flavour and character) with something as crude
as garlic, chili, ginger or, heaven forbid, parmesan cheese. I think we
totally underestimate the competence of (even) the average olive oil
consumer in being able to conjure up these mixes (and far more
interesting ones) in the kitchen, directly upon the dish before serving.
In this way there is absolutely no chance of any extraneous degradation
of the natural oil, and better still, no chance of encouraging the
growth of clostridium botulinum, which finds the anaerobic environment
of a bottle of olive oil a very attractive medium. One case of botulism
can destroy more than an individual Company.

Flavoured oils, as with stuffed olives, originally derived from products
that needed a flavour change. But be that as it may.

Regards,

Guido Costa
Paarl
South Africa

Dear Guido,

You mount a convincing case for the defence of the EVOO standard.

However:

If I have produced a stack of olive oil, all of which is EVOO standard, free
of any fault and fitting within the IOOC guidelines, but it is from
over-ripe fruit and therefore boring, lacking in any depth or bite, what
should I do with it?

It is an extra virgin oil, it will never sell against the decent stuff from
other olives I've picked earlier, so why shouldn't I be able to produce
"Extra Virgin Olive Oil infused with Garlic and Herbs"? I can assure you
that this is most defiantly what the punters want to buy, as it outsells my
regular oil 3 to 1.

Regards,

Mike Wilson
Hunter Valley, NSW.

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<pre>Dear Mike

You confirm my final point nicely: "Flavoured oils, as with stuffed
olives, originally derived from products that needed a flavour change".

My main point, however, relates to the purported legality of
nomenclature. I do not know what internal Australian legislation allows,
but was merely stating the IOOC position, governing the members of the
IOOC. I am under the impression that Australia is not a full member, but
has had spectator status at the IOOC for a couple of years. It would
probably be incumbent of your Olive Board or Association to take the
matter up with IOOC in such a case. Rules are never cast in stone, and
could possibly be amended to cater for changing market needs. However, I
know the IOOC is terribly sensitive to any type of "adulteration" of
olive oil, and are very protective about the terms "Extra Virgin" and
"Virgin", even though the strict organoleptic qualifications of EVOO
have had to be relaxed to allow the bulk of commercial Spanish oil to
qualify. As you can infer, I am not a fan of the typical heavy Spanish
Picual and Hojiblanco commercial oils. My own opinion is that the New
World oils are far superior, especially when made with the typical
Italian oil cultivars.

I stick to my guns, however, on the point that it would be ludicarous to
contaminate a top quality EVOO with foreign flavours. Similarly so with
wine. No self-respecting wine estate would degrade their Cabernet,
Merlot, Shiraz or even Chardonnay with frivolous fruity flavours (and
even less advertise the fact).

As a matter of interest, a number of young local olive oil producers out
here have been doing the same thing, and selling the product as
"*****-enhanced Extra Virgin Olive Oil". Their rationale seems to be
that we are not members of the IOOC.

Personally I am against such products being labelled as "Extra Virgin
Olive Oil" as the main descriptor, probably because I have been in the
business for a while, and it just goes against all efforts at building
up the unique position that EVOO currently holds in the mind of the
consumer. I can assure you, it has not always been as easy as it is
today to sell good quality olive oil at a reasonable price.

Not only the IOOC, but organizations like The Oil Masters Guild (Oleo
Mastri), Olive Matters, MICO, etc., as well as any of the accredited
IOOC taste panels (including the Australian one), would very definitely
not classify a flavoured oil as "extra virgin", or even as "olive oil",
if it detects any taint of foreign flavour. It would be interesting to
hear the views of the Californian Olive Oil Council as to whether they
would allow COOC certification of flavoured oils.

I wish I had an answer for you. Maybe blend it with some Spanish oil to
make it (the Spanish oil) more palatable.

Seriously though, as long as you describe your product reasonably
accurately, and your customer knows what he or she is getting, it is
probably not a terribly major issue unless the IOOC is at liberty and
likely to step in. Far more innocuous than adding sunflower seed oil and
colouring matter to the product.

Regards,

Guido Costa
Paarl
South Africa


-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Wilson
Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2005 11:31 PM

Dear Guido,

You mount a convincing case for the defence of the EVOO standard.

However:

If I have produced a stack of olive oil, all of which is EVOO standard,
free of any fault and fitting within the IOOC guidelines, but it is from
over-ripe fruit and therefore boring, lacking in any depth or bite, what
should I do with it?

It is an extra virgin oil, it will never sell against the decent stuff
from other olives I've picked earlier, so why shouldn't I be able to
produce "Extra Virgin Olive Oil infused with Garlic and Herbs"? I can
assure you that this is most defiantly what the punters want to buy, as
it outsells my regular oil 3 to 1.

Regards,

Mike Wilson
Hunter Valley, NSW.
</pre>
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Dear Mike,

If your oil lacks any depth or bite you have an excellent oil for fish
dishes or for making mayonnaise.

Olive oil is to be used as an food ingredient, it isn't a food for
itself, its always used in conjunction with something else.
OO plays several roles in food, it gives flavor, it's a vehicle of
other ingredients flavors, and it gives "texture" and "plasticity” to
the food it's used in. These three roles are always present when we use
it, but on different dishes a role can be more important than another,
for example:

In a salad one is using ingredients that for them self's lack flavor,
so when we ad OO to it we want to use a nice full of flavor OO that
will give some flavor to the ingredients.

In a fish, with it's delicate flavors, one can not use a "strong" OO
because it will "crush" these flavor bouquet of the dish, so it should
be used an oil that, using your words, lacks bite. We want an oil that
will serve mainly as a vehicle to the fish flavors.

On making a mayonnaise, your mainly looking the "plasticity" and
"texture" of the oil, so a delicate oil should be used, if a "strong"
oil is used it will taste only of OO and it will be impossible to eat.

Basically there isn't a perfect olive oil, it depends on the dish your
cooking. And this is what we should transmit to our consumers. This
fashion of "strong" "spicy" OO if taken to extremes can seriously harm
the our sector, because sooner or latter the consumer will get tiered
of these typology of oil and sales will drop drastically and the image
of the product will be seriously compromised on the long term.

Nor should we try and alter our oil by adding ingredients to suit
market, the main strong point of EVOO marketing is that, unlike the
other vegetable oils, its "pure" it hasn't been altered. If we start
tampering with the oil, the consumer will se it has no different from
the other chemically obtained vegetable oils.

Regards,

João Correia

Yes Mike and Guido,
I don't know about the three to one sales ratio but I
can sell a lot more oil by including infused oils in
my range. Guido I suggest you do a Google search on
infused oils including parmesan oil and you will find
they are made in many countries including France and
Italy. In Australia there are many producers of
infused oils and many producers also include aged or
'balsamic' vinegars, dukkahs and wines under the same
label as their olive oil. Our problem here in
Australia is that a lot of very poor quality olive oil
is imported from IOOC member countries and it is
labelled extra virgin olive oil when clearly it is
not. I believe that is because Australia is not a full
member of the IOOC and so there are no regulations
controlling the dumping of faulty/inferior product at
EEC subsidised prices. Of course I should also
acknowledge here that Australia does import some
excellent evoo from IOOC member countries. Many
consumers here have no idea about labels describing
olive oil as 'Lite' or 'Pure' or Pomace olive oil or
that much of the imported product is of poor quality.
There are also imported infused oils on the shelves of
Australian stores many of which are not made with
olive oil. Olive oil is a flavour component in food.
Not just a cooking medium. It also carries other
flavours very well and I am confident there will
always be a market for quality infusions in extra
virgin olive oil.

Antony Whiting

Thanks for your comments João, but we have a significantly different market
here to Italy (I assume you are in Italy?).

Only 30 years ago Olive Oil in Australia was kept in the medicine cabinet,
almost everybody cooked using butter and there was very little interest in
the health aspects of food. Lamb chops, potatoes and 3 vegetables were the
staple fare.

A lot has changed, but olive oil is still regarded by a significantly large
section of the population as much the same as canola, vegetable, peanut and
sunflower oil - something to fry in. A growing but still fairly small
section of the population is interested in EVOO, but this is a long way from
being the average housewife shopping at the supermarket.

To many EVOO is a gourmet item, although we do as much education as we can -
I run simple oil appreciation classes showing the very basics such as the
difference between a mild and robust, and new and 2 year old oil, a Pure oil
and a faulty oil. I have yet to meet a single person at one of these classes
that knew what Extra Virgin actually means, and what Pure denotes.

Of those people that do buy and use olive oil, a significant proportion were
born in Europe and have lived here for 20-odd years and will only buy their
favourite brand - in a 4 litre tin for $25. The Greeks buy Greek oil, the
Italians buy Italian oil, the Spanish buy Spanish oil. It is almost
impossible to get a little old Greek lady to try an Australian oil, let
alone buy something different!

So we are left with a quite small market - the well travelled, affluent
gourmet. They want big flavours. Subtle, aromatic oils are not popular. I
don't know if you have come across many Australian red wines, but compare
these to the majority of the Italian wines and you will see the sort of
thing I mean - big, bold flavours are what sell. Subtle, elegant, delicate
flavours are almost impossible to find a buyer for. Hence the need to do
something with the delicate oils.

Guido raises a good point about the IOOC and where does Australia fit.
Anthony is right with his comments of sub-standard European oil being widely
available here. If Australia does join the IOOC, will this stop the ocean of
poor quality oil labelled as Extra Virgin coming ashore? I doubt it. Does
the IOOC really want Australia as a member? I have my doubts there, too.
Are we better off sticking to Codex rather than IOOC?

Regards,

Mike Wilson
Hunter Valley, NSW.

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<pre>Hi Mike,

You will forgive me for providing a different
view of the olive oil market in Australia.

You are correct in saying that the Olive Oil
market has changed considerably in Australia over
the past fourty plus years. I certainly can
recall the small bottles of Faulding's Olive Oil
that were sold next to the Cod Liver Oil in the
pharmacies. The average Australian did not buy
Olive Oil for cooking; they actually only bought
butter for special occasions. Lard was the big
seller in terms of a cooking fat. Lard was the
magic ingredient in crusty and flaky pies and it
brought another dimension to baked potatoes and
roasts. Even today, chefs making traditional
Aussie tucker prefer a good fatty roast and
secretly add lard as their "secret" ingredient.

For many years, my family sold blended vegetable
and olive oils in the Central Market in Adelaide.
Our customer base ranged from the traditional
Greek and Italian families, through Lebanese,
Egyptians and Israelis to gourmands and gourmet
chefs like the Premier of South Australia, the
late Hon. Don Dunstan. Whatever I say about the
Australian market is based upon that experience.

The Greeks don't only buy Greek Oil, nor do the
Italians only buy Italian Oil..... the biggest
selling 4 litre tin of olive oil fourty years ago
was Dante Olive Oil in the blue tin. It was well
priced, it was typically recent season because of
the volumes sold and it had a consistent quality.
In those days, a company called D'Oro sold a
blended vegetable oil in 4 litre tins which was
considerably cheaper. Greeks, Italians, Lebanese
bought Dante for their salads and D'Oro for their
frying. Rapeseed Oil (Canola) in those days had
an unfortunate smell of fish when used and people
hated the taste in salads.

We used to sell blended vegetable oils which had
a strong olive oil presence. When we could, we
bought South Australian Olive Oil because it had
the strong robust flavour demanded by the Greeks.
The Italians wanted an oil that was lighter and
more fragrant. You don't use a strong, peppery
olive oil in risotto nor on a good mozzarella and
ripe tomato. Of course, the Southern Italians
liked their oils stronger than the Northern
Italians.

The secret to selling olive oil was never whether
it was EVOO or blended. Some wanted a cheap olive
oil for frying and cooking. Over the years, even
the Greeks and Italians moved from Olive Oil to
Safflower and Sunflower Oils; today Canola does
the trick. The secret has always been matching
olive oil aromas and taste to local cuisines.
.... nothing more, nothing less...... we need to
convince even the savoury dip manufacturers to
use Olive Oil rather than Canola in making
taramosalata (greek roe dip) for the Australian
market.

If you restrict your market to those well
travelled, affluent gourmands then you will have
to provide a product that suits their cuisines;
typically Mediterranean cuisines but mainly
northern Italian and Souther French, with a
smattering of middle eastern and possibly some
Moroccan cuisines.

But the market is much broader. The restauranter
would love to have a guaranteed supply of
different olive oils; some for the table to have
with bread instead of butter, some with spices to
enhance the flavour, some to make an aoili
instead of the typical mayonnaises served with
fish ... and chips, some with their salads, a
different one for cooking various dishes. It does
require suppliers who are willing to provide
different oils at different times of the year and
keep them keenly priced against imports. It
requires a knowledge of cooking as well as of
wholesaling and olive growing.

Some research has been done on the different
market segments in the Australian Olive Oil
Industry. It was presented at an Olive Conference
in South Australia a few years ago by Caroline
Rowe of The Loyalty Factor. Despite numerous
attempts to have the detailed research released
to the olive industry, I have failed.... perhaps
someone else will succeed in releasing the
precious data. The gourmands are but one small
segment.

The key problem for Australian olive producers is
going to be one of being cost competitive against
imports on the supermarket shelves. Imports have
traditionally come from the EC countries, i.e.
Spain, Italy and Greece. They have the power of
brands and well organised marketing to back them.
Turkish and Argentinian producers will
increasingly tackle this market and small but
significant volumes are beginning to arrive
locally.

One of my research students has just completed a
study of the potential impact of a Countervailing
Duty on EC olive oils on the Australian market.
The report has just been submitted to the
examiner and hopefully we can release the case
studies and the accompanying article very soon.
If the experience of Argentina is any guide, then
Countervailing Duities on imported EC products
will lead to a rapid rise in imports from
third-country sources and reduce the consumption
of olive oil per capita. Sobering data indeed!!!

The Australian industry needs to stop thinking
that EVOO will be their saviour. It won't! They
need to become price and quality competitive,
they need to develop brand and taste preferences
for their product, and they need to produce a
wide variety of oils suited to different needs.
That includes infused olive oils.

Frankly, the IOOC is doing a great job for the
EC. Australia will need to compete with products
based on its distinctive products. Even if
Australia followed IOOC standards (i.e.
definitions) this will not reduce the high import
duties which price Australian product out of the
EC. Australian exporters will need to tackle the
EC producers head on in places like Japan, the
USA and the rest of Asia ... with products that
are distinctly Australian not mere shadows and
imitations of European products.

Mike, you are doing a great job working with
limited resources and within a restricted market
segment. Let's not forget the lessons of the
Australian wine industry; what saved the
declining wine industry in the 1960's was not
Penfold's Grange but Barossa Pearl.....what
saved them in the late 70's was not the premium
wines, but the high quality casks (Chateau de
Cardboard) ... what saved them in the UK market
in the late 80's was bypassing the traditional
wine wholesalers and selling directly to the
large supermarket chains.

With great respect to all those pioneers out there,
Lambros Karavis.
</pre>
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