BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE HEALTH
COMMITTEE ANALYSIS
Senator Ed Hernandez, O.D., Chair
BILL NO: SB 818
S
AUTHOR: Wolk
B
AMENDED: March 30, 2011
HEARING DATE: April 6, 2011
8
CONSULTANT:
1
Tadeo
8
SUBJECT
Food labeling: olive oil.
SUMMARY
Revises current definitions of olive oil and grades of
olive oil and olive-pomace oil in state law to conform to
recently established USDA standards.
CHANGES TO EXISTING LAW
Existing federal law:
Establishes standards, based on international standards,
for the various grades of olive oil and olive-pomace oil
under the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) Division of
the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Provides definitions for extra virgin olive oil, virgin
olive oil, olive oil, refined olive oil and olive-pomace
oil, and establishes the hierarchy for virgin olive oil
grades.
Existing state law:
Requires the Department of Public Health (DPH) to enforce
various provisions of law regarding the manufacture,
blending, production, and sale of olive oil.
Continued---
STAFF ANALYSIS OF SENATE BILL 818 (Wolk) Page
2
Conforms olive oil definitions, grades and labeling
requirements to international standards, authorizes the
addition of vitamin E to specified olive oil, and permits a
consumer to re-use a clean olive oil container, can, or
drum.
Specifies that olive oil labeled as California olive oil
must be made from California olives. Permits the blending
of olive oil if the contents and proportions of the blend
are prominently displayed on the label.
This bill:
Makes various conforming changes in state law to conform to
federal standards, based on international standards, which
include objective criteria for the various grades of olive
oil and olive-pomace oil, including definitions for extra
virgin olive oil, virgin olive oil, refined olive oil and
pomace-olive oil, as specified. Prohibits olive-pomace oil
from being labeled as olive oil.
FISCAL IMPACT
This bill has not been analyzed by a fiscal committee.
BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION
The author states that SB 818 is needed to place
California's olive oil standards in conformity with new
federal standards. This bill will facilitate the marketing
of olive oil and olive-pomace oil, employ terms consistent
with the marketplace, provide definitions for olive oil and
olive-pomace oil, promote truth in labeling and provide a
basis for enforcement by state and federal agencies if
these products are mislabeled. The author further states
that the AMS received a petition from the California Olive
Oil Council (COOC), an association of domestic olive oil
producers, requesting the revision of the U.S. standards
for grades of olive oil to reflect current industry
standards commonly accepted in the U.S. and abroad. The
petitioners requested that the U.S. grade standards be
revised to make them consistent with the International
STAFF ANALYSIS OF SENATE BILL 818 (Wolk) Page
3
Olive Council (IOC) trade standards for olive and
olive-pomace oil. According to the COOC, the lack of an
olive oil definition in the U.S. has allowed for the
practice of blending which can produce low quality olive
oil or olive-pomace oil to be marketed as extra virgin
olive oil at a premium price. Adulteration is especially
common in Italy, the world's leading importer, consumer,
and exporter of olive oil. (For the past ten years, Spain
has produced more oil than Italy, but much of it is shipped
to Italy for packaging and is sold, legally, as Italian
oil.) The COOC is the only certified quality control
program in North America whose standards exceed those of
the IOC. The COOC extra virgin certification seal, for
example, shall only be granted if strict parameters are
met.
Olive oil
Olive oil is a monounsaturated fat, which has been promoted
in recent years as good for the heart and possibly a hedge
against developing certain cancers. The Center for Science
in the Public Interest has determined that all research
suggests that olive oil is the safest and healthiest, or
the least damaging to the human system in terms of oil or
fat.
Olive oil production in the European Union
The European Union (E.U.) is the world's leading producer
of all categories of olive oils, accounting for
approximately 80 percent of production, yet they have
consumed approximately 70 percent of that production
since1986. Olive oil is produced in Italy, Greece, Spain,
Portugal, France, Tunisia, Turkey (an E.U. candidate
country), Syria and Morocco. The IOC develops standards of
quality used by major olive oil producing countries,
including Spain, Italy, Greece, Portugal and Turkey. The
IOC operates under E.U. established regulations for olive
oil, which are consistent with CODEX Alimentarius
definitions of the products, which is an internationally
used index.
A 2007 New Yorker article reported that in 1997 and 1998,
olive oil was the most adulterated agricultural product in
the E.U., prompting the E.U.'s anti-fraud office to
establish an olive oil task force. The E.U. also began
phasing out subsidies for olive oil producers and bottlers
STAFF ANALYSIS OF SENATE BILL 818 (Wolk) Page
4
in an effort to reduce crime, and after a few years it
disbanded the task force. Yet fraud remains a major
international problem: olive oil is far more valuable than
most other vegetable oils, but it is costly and
time-consuming to produce-and surprisingly easy to doctor.
Olive oil production in California
California produces 99 percent of the olive oil in the
United States. The olive was first brought to California in
the late 1700s by Franciscan padres who journeyed north
from San Blas, Mexico. Distributed from San Diego, olive
trees were soon in production at all missions along the
coast south of San Francisco. As an agricultural product,
quality olive oils are in high demand, and the state is
home to over 300 artisan olive oil producers, including the
largest estate grown olive oil producer in the nation.
More than 99.5 percent of commercial olive acreage in
California is located in the interior valleys of central
California, although olive trees grow throughout the state.
Economic advantages such as suitable soils, water
availability, and low land prices have resulted on the
current distribution and concentration of olive acreage in
the central valley. In the northern Sacramento valley, the
counties of Butte, Glenn and Tehama have 33 percent of the
state acreage, and in the southern San Joaquin Valley, the
counties of Fresno, Kern, Madera and Tulare have 62 percent
of the acreage.
Unlike wine, virgin olive oil does not need to be aged to
create complexity. The faster the fruit is crushed, the
fresher the product will be due to the esterification
reaction that occurs over time between free alcohols and
free fatty acids. According to the COOC, California olive
oil producers are able to bring their fresh product to
market sooner than international counterparts, while most
imported olive oils can arrive months, sometimes even
years, after they are pressed.
Olive oil standards
Voluntary U.S. grade standards are issued under the
authority of the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946, which
provides for the development of official U.S. grades to
designate different levels of quality. The standards are
designed to facilitate orderly marketing by providing a
convenient basis for buying and selling, establishing
STAFF ANALYSIS OF SENATE BILL 818 (Wolk) Page
5
quality control programs and determining loans. The
standards also serve as a basis for the inspection and
grading of commodities by the Federal inspection service to
approve the designation of U.S. grades.
Effective October 24, 2010, the U.S. established new
standards for grades of olive oil and olive-pomace oil
under the AMS Division of the USDA. This is a revision of
the U.S. standards that have been in place since 1948.
According to the USDA, these revised standards will provide
a common language for trade and provide consumers more
assurance of the quality of olive oil they purchase. This
revision could potentially affect more than 500 domestic
olive oil producers and growers. In 2008, U.S. production
was 500,000 gallons (about 3.8 million pounds). Domestic
olive oil consumption is roughly 454 million pounds per
year, mostly imported.
The new U.S. standards are almost identical to the
requirements of the IOC Trade Standard, with a slight
difference in regard to the natural chemistry of California
olive oil. The U.S. standard allows for slightly higher
levels of campesterol (4.0 in the IOC and between 4.0 and
4.5 in the U.S. standard) and linolenic acid levels (1.0 in
the IOC and between 1.0 and 1.5 in the U.S. standard) but
subjects the olive oil found to be in these ranges to
further testing. The sensory standard for the IOC requires
a median of defect score to be between zero and 3.5, in the
U.S. standard the range is between zero and 2.5, which
means the IOC allows for a slightly higher level of median
of defect, as rated by a sensory panel.
Prior legislation
SB 634 (Wiggins) Chapter 694, Statutes of 2008, clarifies
the definition of olive oil,
repeals previous licensure provisions, conforms olive oil
definitions, grades and labeling requirements to
international standards, authorizes the addition of vitamin
E to specified olive oil, and permits a consumer to re-use
a clean olive oil container, can, or drum.
AB 2824 (Berryhill) Chapter 695, Statutes of 2008,
clarified the definitions of olive oil similar to SB 634
but was chaptered out by the provisions of SB 634.
STAFF ANALYSIS OF SENATE BILL 818 (Wolk) Page
6
SB 920 (Thompson) Chapter 543, Statutes of 1997, specifies
that olive oil labeled as California olive oil must be made
from California olives. If the olive oil is labeled as
coming from a viticultural area, as specified in federal
law, 75 percent of the oil must be from olives grown in
that viticultural area. Permits the blending of olive oil
if the contents and proportions of the blend are
prominently displayed on the label.
SB 1666 (Thompson) Chapter 530, Statutes of 1996,
establishes a working group of state and industry officials
to make recommendations to the Legislature concerning
labeling standards for olive oil.
POSITIONS
Support: None received
Oppose: None received
-- END --