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United States Standards for Grades of Olive Oil |
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The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) released United States Standards for Grades of Olive Oil in 1948. These standards are still followed in the US and as explained earlier, this has, to some extent, caused problems for the consumers in purchasing the right kind of organic olive oil.
The USDA grades olive oil in the following four categories:
- US Grade A or US Fancy
- US Grade B or US Choice
- US Grade C or US Standard
- US Grade D or Substandard
The grading is done based on free fatty acid content (calculated as oleic acid according to the Official and Tentative Methods of Analysis of the Association of Official Agricultural Chemists), absence of defects, (degree of freedom from cloudiness at 60 degrees F), odor (typical olive oil odor and its variation to off-odors) and flavor (typical olive oil flavor and its variation to off-flavors). It has given a 100 point score sheet for olive oil in which free fatty acid content, absence of defects, odor, and flavor have weights of 30, 30, 20 and 20 respectively.
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Fancy: US Fancy refers to olive oil that has fatty acid content of not more than 1.4 percent (27-30 points). It should be entirely free from any defects (27-30 points). It should have good typical olive oil odor (18-20 points). It should have good typical olive oil flavor (18-20 points). It should further have a score of not less than 90 points.
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Choice: US Choice refers to olive oil that has fatty acid content of more than 1.4 percent but not more than 2.5 percent (24-26 points). It should be reasonably free from any defect (24-26 points). It should have reasonably good typical olive oil odor (16-17 points). It should have reasonably good typical olive oil flavor (16-17 points). It should further have a score of not less than 80 points.
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Standard: US Standard refers to olive oil that has fatty acid content of more than 2.5 percent but less than 3.0 percent (21-23 points). It should be fairly free from any defect (21-23 points). It should have fairly good typical olive oil odor (14-15 points). It should have fairly good typical olive oil flavor (14-15 points). It should further have a score of not less than 70 points.
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Substandard: Substandard refers to olive oil that has free fatty acid content of more than 3.0 percent (0-20 points). It has more defects than that present in US Standard type of oil (0-20 points). It fails to have even a fairly good typical olive oil odor (0-13 points). It fails to have even a fairly good typical olive oil flavor (0-13 points). It has less than 70 points.
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