Extra virgin olive oil: looking for the perfect food for taste and health
Rome, 6 December 2016 – “Looking for the Perfect Food” is the theme at the heart of “Olive Oil, European High Quality”, a project promoted by the European Union and Italy and carried out by Unaprol, the largest association of Italian olive oil producers. The aim is to increase awareness of controlled and guaranteed European olive production, which, thanks to the special territorial and environmental conditions prevailing in the Mediterranean, offers exceptional nutritional and organoleptic characteristics. Tasty, healthy, suitable for cooking and as a raw dressing, it can be used as an ingredient for beauty products and is sustainable from an environmental point of view. This is high quality European olive oil: a multi-tasking food, perfectly suited to modern times. The Phoenicians used to call it liquid gold, and recent research has highlighted its nutraceutical properties, providing, that is, important benefits for health. How much do we really know about it? How do we use it? The project was presented at a press conference in Rome’s Palazzo Rospigliosi, with the participation of famous TV chef Daniele Reponi, who whipped up three sandwiches dedicated to the countries involved in the campaign: Merkel sandwich, Queen sandwich and Pope sandwich.
European extra virgin olive oil can help discerning consumers in their quest for the “perfect food”! That is the theme of “looking for The Perfect Food”, linked to the marketing campaign “Olive Oil, European High Quality”, which aims to raise awareness about the properties of top quality European olive production (olives and extra virgin olive oil). The project is aimed at consumers and business partners in Italy (traditional consumers), Britain and Germany (new consumers).
“Counterfeiting, downward standardisation of the market, and labelling conventions can make it difficult to recognise quality, so we need to focus attention on the importance of food products, and above all on the need for informed choices,” said David Granieri, the president of Unaprol. ”Olives and European high quality olive oil can’t fail to make a mark, because scientific evidence shows that they are not simply condiments but complete foods in themselves, and indispensible for a balanced modern diet.”
Olive oil is a fundamental link in the Made in Italy value chain, expressing the excellence of the country’s food industry and agricultural production. Pietro Sandali, Unaprol’s director general, added: “Extra virgin olive oil is moving from a traffic builder to become a generator of positive energies and a competitive champion in a market where demand for high quality products is constantly on the rise.”