SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Oct 1 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Governing Council of the Cabildo de Tenerife has approved this week the new call and the regulatory bases of the Extra Virgin Olive Oil Contest, which will be published soon in the Official Gazette of the Province (BOP).
The contest, promoted by the Area of Agriculture, Livestock and Fishing, celebrates its seventh edition this year and its main novelty is that it will focus only on productions from the island of Tenerife.
The area counselor, Javier Parrilla, stressed that the contest seeks to promote the quality of Tenerife’s extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) productions “to enhance the increase in sales and give them greater notoriety among consumers.”
He also recalled the Cabildo’s support for this agricultural subsector, which will be reflected in the signing of a collaboration agreement with the Andalusian Institute for Agricultural, Fisheries, Food and Ecological Production Research and Training (IFAPA), which will allow the joint realization of tests of evaluation of the material of the olive tree.
The counselor emphasized that it is “a sustainable crop under water parameters and the results obtained so far in the quality of the olive make us continue working so that it becomes a safe bet for local farmers.”
In this contest, whose application deadline will open once the call is published in the BOP and will end on November 15, all those natural or legal persons that produce extra virgin olive oil in Tenerife, whether they are individual producers and associations, as well as packers that have the corresponding sanitary authorization, a concept that includes both the General Sanitary Registry of Food and Food Companies and the Autonomous Sanitary Registry of Retail Trade.
COMPETITION RULES.
The counselor remarked that extra virgin olive oils made throughout this year from olives produced and ground in Tenerife, which meet the following requirements, may be presented at the VII Extra Virgin Olive Oil Contest: belong to a batch homogeneous of at least 100 liters, and meet the requirements established in current regulations for the EVOO category “.
The samples that compete, which will be tasted, by the appointed jury, on December 1 and 2 to deliver the corresponding prizes on the 11th of that same month, will compete in the Quality Awards category, to which producers may choose local, presenting the following types of oils: Monovarietal Extra Virgin Olive Oil, made from a single variety of olives (arbequina, verdial, picual, etc.); and Non-Monovarietal Extra Virgin Olive Oil (mixed or coupage), resulting from the grinding of different varieties of olives or mixtures of oils of different varieties in different proportions. They may also do the same in the Best Presentation Award section, to which the producers or packers of EVOO produced on the island can choose and where the design and commercial presentation will be valued.
The EVOOs admitted to the quality contest will be subjected to a blind tasting by a jury made up of experts in the field, which will make their assessment by analyzing the organoleptic characteristics on a maximum value of 100 points distributed in different descriptors.
According to the assigned scores, distinctions will be awarded to the most valued EVOO samples. Thus, the Golden Olive will be awarded to oils that obtain a score equal to or greater than 85 points, and the Silver Olive, to products that achieve a score equal to or greater than 80 points. Among the awarded EVOOs, the following prizes will be awarded: the Gran Oliva de Oro for the Best Extra Virgin Olive Oil of Tenerife 2021 to the sample that has obtained the highest score among the EVOOs distinguished as Oliva de Oro.
