The OLEUM project has a budget of 5 million euros and the col•laboration of 20 institutions from 15 countries, the CSIC among them. The project is aimed at verifying the quality of the oils and creating an international network to offer information about the product.

 

The European project OLEUM is aimed at detecting and fighting the fraud, and controlling quality of olive oil. The project, which counts on the participation of the CSIC’s Instituto de la Grasa, is part of the program against food fraud in Framework Programme Horizon 2020. It has been launched this year, with a budget of 5 million euros.

The Oleum project counts on 20 partners from 15 countries. Analytical methods will be developed, based on new markers in order to detect deodorization processes, illegal mixtures between olive oil and other vegetal oils, and for quality control.

The University of Bologna (Italy) coordinates the OLEUM project. Two scientific  teams from the CSIC’s Instituto de la Grasa are involved: one team, led by Wenceslao Moreda, will work on methods to certify authenticity of the olive oil; the other team, led by Diego Luis Garcia, will work on sensorial analysis of olive oil. Both teams are members of the international regulatory bodies of the olive-oil: the European Union and the International Oleic Council.