re US Is A Dumping Ground For Crappy, Dangerous Olive Oil - The Consumerist

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Ridgely Evers <rce () evers org>
> Date: July 7, 2010 7:43:58 PM EDT
> To: dave () farber net
> Subject: Re: [IP] US Is A Dumping Ground For Crappy, Dangerous Olive Oil - The Consumerist

> Dave,
>
> Who knew you were a foodie?
>
> Twenty years ago (while I was knee-deep in developing QuickBooks), I imported the first olive trees to be brought to 
> the US in the 20th Century.  I brought them in from an 800-year-old grove outside of Lucca, in Tuscany.
>
> Like most (all?) entrepreneurial activities, I had no idea how hard it was going to be to grow the trees, make oil, 
> and sell it successfully.  I'll leave out the in-between steps, but suffice to say that we're now doing great -- read 
> about it at www.DaVero.com.
>
> Along the way, though, I ran head-on into the problem of adulterated olive oil, and more.  Along with three other 
> intrepid pioneers I founded the California Olive Oil Council and began, among other things, to lobby the USDA and FDA 
> to put rules in place here that reflected those common in every other developed country in the world.
>
> It's only taken them 20 years to do it.
>
> The changes will be palpable, in both the olfactory and financial senses of the word.  It should make it much harder 
> for importers to bring in the adulterated oils that have littered our shelves, which will cause prices to rise.  
> That's good news for those of us who are producing oil here.
>
> It won't have as much of an impact as one might expect, though, because the term 'extra virgin' is a measure of 
> non-badness, not goodness.  To be classified as extra virgin, an olive oil must have been produced by purely 
> mechanical means (no chemistry); been kept at a temperature of 27C or less (heat degrades it); have free oleic acid 
> of less then 0.8% (all fats are essentially all acid; it's the oleic acid that's the issue), and have no 'defects' 
> (rancidity, mustiness, etc).  In other words, there can't be anything wrong with it.
>
> But we'll still be getting inferior oils here, because not only has the US been a dumping ground for adulterated 
> olive oil; it's also been where producers send their old oils that have stopped selling in Europe because they no 
> longer have good flavor.  Simply put,  olive oil flavors drop off after the first 18 months or so.
>
> So most Americans still won't know what olive oil tastes like when it's good.  Still, it's a great start.
>
> Best,
>
> --Ridge
> -----------------------
> Ridgely Evers
> DaVero Farms
> www.DaVero.com
> On 2010-07-07, at 4:15 PM, Dave Farber wrote:
>
> > http://consumerist.com/2010/07/us-is-a-dumping-ground-for-crappy-dangerous-olive-oil.html
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
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