What’s on our supermarket shelves – Bertoli Extra Virgin Olive Oil
admin | July 23, 2011Bertoli Extra Virgin Olive Oil “Fruity Taste”
Batch: LO34iV H1500
Purchased: 3/4/2011 Woolworths Unley Road, South Australia
Best by date: 31/10/2012
Price: $AUD6.50 for 500mls ($AUD 13 per litre, $US12.15 )
Package: 500ml Clear glass, screwcap
Source: Who knows!
Date Analysed: 4/4/2011
My measurement of FFA: 0.67% (IOC Limit 0.8%)
My measurement of UV232: 2.04 (IOC Limit 2.5)
My measurement of UV270: 0.33 (IOC Limit 0.22)
Tasting notes: Overipe tropical aromas with an old nutty note. Little flavour with an immediate greasy feel. No bitterness but there is a very late but light chilli like pungency on the finish. The flavours on the finish were like when you leave fruit in the fruitbowl for too long. Very typical of what we have been seeing in Australian supermarket EVOO’s from the EU for as long as I’ve been tasting oils.
Recommended use: None that I can think of.
Comment: When a back label starts off like this… you have to start wondering.
“Bertolli was born in Lucca, Tuscany in 1865. Maintaining the same passion and care today, Bertolli offers you EVOO with a fruity taste and well balanced aroma.”
Well I was born in Adelaide, South Australia about 100 years later. So their point is?’ What is the link between where someone is born with how much “passion and care” a product was made in 2011? But then again the clever marketers know that the average supermarket consumer will only read the first sentence or two of a back label, and will pop it into their trolley on the basis of the impression they get from those 15 words.
Firstly let’s cut the crap here. This oil displays the clear and distinct aroma of the ripe version of the Spanish variety Picual. So the “Blended and bottled in Italy from imported and local olive oils” on the back label, and “Bottled in Italy” prominently displayed on the front label are there probably to give the impression that the oil has Italian provinence. I wonder exactly how much Italian oil is in this blend? Most likely most of it is imported into Italy, stirred up and bottled in an factory in some industrial estate on the outskirts of an Italian city somewhere before being shipped out to the US, Canada and Australia. It is about time that oil marketers tell their consumers exactly where the oil is grown rather than making statements of fact that when read in combination lead to interesting impressions as to where the oil comes from and how it is made. I also note that nowhere on the label is the “Product of …(some country)” statement. I thought this was mandatory on all food products in Australia. Obviously not.
I called their 1 800 info line given on the back label (Monday 4/4/11) and asked which country the oil was from, as it didn’t say so on the label. The reply was “Italy”. I said that the label said that it was “bottled in Italy”, to which was volunteered. “No, it’s made in Italy”.
This oil is about Italian as I am!
