Source: European Parliament
Question for written answer E-001485/2025
to the Commission
Rule 144
Carmen Crespo Díaz (PPE), Juan Ignacio Zoido Álvarez (PPE)
The olive oil industry in the EU faces many challenges, such as tariffs on exports to key markets, production volatility owing to adverse weather conditions, and energy costs. Adding to its difficulties is the sector’s growing concern about the reliability of the tasting panel system for classifying olive oil.
This sensory method – key to determining products’ commercial category – has a significant margin of error and a degree of subjectivity, which creates uncertainty for producers, affecting the competitiveness of a product of very high quality such as European olive oil.
Against that backdrop and given the EU’s commitment to innovation in the agri-food sector:
- 1.With a view to providing greater legal certainty and fairness in the marketing of European olive oil on the internal market and elsewhere, is a review of the classification system being considered?
- 2.Does the Commission plan to promote specific research lines or funding programmes to develop and validate technologies complementary to the tasting panel, such as spectrometry, artificial intelligence or advanced chemical analyses, which allow for a more objective and accurate assessment of the qualities of olive oil?
Submitted: 10.4.2025