How to read the label of an extra virgin olive oil

The label of an extra virgin olive oil is written by law: European Regulation 2022/2104 sets out what must be on it, what may be added, and on what conditions. Knowing where to look means understanding in thirty seconds where what you buy comes from.

1. The category

Under the name there must be a precise sentence: “superior category olive oil obtained directly from olives and solely by mechanical means”. That is what sets extra virgin apart from the other categories. If you read just “olive oil”, or “composed of refined olive oils and virgin olive oils”, it is a different product.

2. The origin

It is mandatory, and it is the most important line. The origin is the place where the olives were harvested and where the mill that made the oil is located.

• If harvest and mill are in the same country, you find the country: for example “Italy” or “Italian oil”.
• If they are in two different countries, the law requires it to be written like this: “extra virgin olive oil obtained in one country from olives harvested in another”.
• Blends are labelled for what they are: “blend of olive oils of European Union origin”, “not of European Union origin”, or both.

A blend is not necessarily a bad oil. But if you are looking for an oil from a specific place, this is where you find out.

3. The harvest season

In Italy it is mandatory for Italian oil sold in Italy (Law no. 9 of 2013). It is written with two years, because the harvest straddles the new year: “harvest season 2025/2026”. If a month is given as well, it is the month of milling.

This line tells you how young the oil is. An extra virgin is at its best in the months after the harvest, and loses aroma over time.

4. “Cold extracted” and “first cold pressed”

These are optional statements, and they have a precise meaning: the oil was obtained below 27 °C. “First cold pressed” applies only to mills with traditional presses; “cold extracted” to those using centrifuges, which are most of them today.

5. Acidity

For extra virgin the legal limit is 0.8%. On the label, however, acidity may only be stated together with three other values: peroxides, waxes and ultraviolet absorption. An “acidity 0.2%” written on its own, in large letters, is not allowed.

Low acidity is good news, but it is not enough: an oil is extra virgin also because a panel of tasters finds no defects in it and can taste the fruitiness of the olive.

6. Best-before date, lot, storage

• “Best before”: set by whoever bottles the oil. It is not a safety deadline; it is the date until which the oil keeps its characteristics if stored well.
• The lot, preceded by “L”: it identifies the bottles filled together. It matters if something goes wrong.
• “Keep away from light and heat”: the law requires the label to say how to store it. How to actually do it is explained in another guide.

7. Who made it

The label must say who is responsible for the product, with their address. Often it is whoever bottles it, who is not always the person who grew the olives.

On Orterra

Every oil on Orterra has a lot with its own public page: the municipality where the olives grew, the hectares and trees declared, how much oil was produced and how much is left. The lot code is written on the product page: you read the label before buying, and you check the figures whenever you like.

Sources: Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/2104, Articles 6, 8, 10 and 11 and Annex I; Italian Law no. 9 of 14 January 2013, Art. 7; Turin Chamber of Commerce, “Practical guide to olive oil labelling”, 3rd edition (2023).