The Olive Oil sector unites in a call for a fairer product rating in the Nutri Score
The association QvExtra! international, which promotes quality in the production of Extra Virgin Olive Oil, joins other associations in the Olive Oil sector in claiming that the non-application of the Nutri-Score for olive oil in Spain is “insufficient” and demands that the government advocate for it to receive the maximum rating in Europe.
The association, made up of 33 extra virgin olive oil producing and bottling companies, believes that the government’s decision to exclude extra virgin olive oil from the European Nutri-Score system, which ranks foods according to their impact on our health, is “insufficient”. This ‘solution’ gives EVOO a much lower score than it deserves for its quality, and places it alongside foods with a much lower nutritional value, such as rapeseed oil or walnut oil.
The association, the national Designation of Origin sector, and the Director and Executive Secretary José Manuel Bajo all agree, as he argues that “the issue cannot be solved by simply removing our olive oil from the system in Spain, as this rating is being implemented in numerous European countries, so instead we must fight for it to be awarded the maximum food quality rating, which is the right one for a product with such extraordinary properties for our health as virgin olive oil”.
That’s why QvExtra! International is calling on the Spanish government to focus on obtaining the letter A rating for olive oils (those that are Virgin and Extra Virgin), as this rating is awarded to the highest quality foods on the European continent, and the B rating for olive oils (those that are a blend of refined and extra virgin), placing them above rapeseed and walnut oils.
The scientific community supports these claims
The opinions of prestigious scientists and researchers, who have signed a document rejecting the introduction of Nutri-Score front-of-pack labelling in Spain, also helps to back the demands to protect the Spanish ‘liquid gold’ rating of the sector.
It is an open letter which will continue to receive more signatures, and those who sign it agree that the currently proposed rating goes against the essence of the Mediterranean diet, of which virgin oil is an essential part. They express that this rating could even lead to the disappearance of one of the healthiest diets in the world, which is more than enough reason to advise against its implementation in Spain and to demand its modification at a European level.
