Buy italian extra virgin olive oil in the online shop OliveOilsItaly

Extra virgin olive oil: best Italian olive oil

Extra virgin olive oil - extra virgin olive oil from Italy - is still one of the world's best olive oils and sets unsurpassed quality standards worldwide.

In our online shop you will find olive oils from all regions and from the best olive varieties in Italy. What you are buying is a high-quality, healthy and cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil from Italy... directly from well-known producers!

Read more

Active filters

Back to top

You will find Italian test-winning olive oils, awarded by the International Olive Oil Award (such as Olive Oil Award Zurich orJapan Olive Oil Prize (JOOP) or NYOOC New Your Olive Oil Competition).

You can also buy organic olive oils - produced from organically grown olives - and PDO olive oils order. DOP olive oils have a designation of origin and a serial number. This ensures that the oil is produced exclusively with olives from a specific Italian area.

Olive oil from Italy

Olive Oil, obtained from olives, is one of the foremost products of the culinary tradition of Italy and the Mediterranean as a whole. It directly reflects the climate and landscape, but also the culture and history of the country. In fact, the process of pressing the fruit of the olive tree and extracting that precious golden-green nectar from them was already well known to our Roman ancestors. However, the ancient Romans valued it primarily because of its beneficial effects on the skin and therefore used it primarily for body care and less for the preparation of food.

Italy is the second largest olive oil producing country in the world. According to current estimates by the Italian Official Statistics Office (ISTAT), the annual production of olive oil is almost 350,000 tons; more than two-thirds of the olive oil produced in Italy each year also bears the "extra virgin" quality seal, i.e. "extra virgin olive oil".

In Italy, a lot of olive oil is not only produced, but also consumed. However, the country is also a major exporter of the golden-green nectar: ​​more than 35% of the olive oil bought worldwide comes from Italy.

Olive oil is produced in all regions of Italy, although the quantity varies greatly from region to region: Puglia and Calabria are in the lead, followed by Sicily, Campania and Lazio. The quantity produced in Tuscany, on the other hand, is only about a tenth of that of Apulia, while in Veneto, known above all for its olive oil from Lake Garda is known, even 200 times less oil is produced than in Calabria.

Olive oil from Tuscany

Olive oil from Sicily

Olive oil from Apulia

Olive oil: overview of the different grades

Olive oil intended for consumption from Italy is generally offered in three different grades:

  1. "olio extra vergine" (extra virgin olive oil)
  2. "olio vergine" (virgin olive oil)
  3. "olio di oliva raffinato" (olive oil)
  4. "olio di sansa di oliva" (olive pomace oil),

Olive oil in the latter category is of very high quality, while olive oil labeled "olio di sansa" is of inferior quality. The main difference between "extra virgin olive oil" and "olive pomace oil"  (also called "olive oil from pressing residues") is that the former may only be obtained by the mechanical process of cold pressing ; the chemical process of refining is not allowed here.

Olive oil in the "extra virgin" category differs from "virgin" olive oil essentially in its lower acidity: This must always be below 0.8% for virgin olive oil with the addition "extra".

Learn more about extra virgin olive oil

Are there different grades of "extra virgin olive oil"?

The answer to this question is "No".
Italian extra virgin olive oil must always meet the criteria of EU Regulation No. Conform to 2568/91 for "extra virgin olive oil".

However, there are a number of additional seals such as Olio DOP, i.e. olive oil with a protected designation of origin (PDO), or Olio biologico, i.e. olive oil from organic farming.

In the case of Italian olive oil, the region in which it is produced or the type of olives used may also be specified.

Of course, the quality of extra virgin olive oil can also be assessed on the basis of certain properties, in particular its taste and smell. There are various private organizations, both in Italy and internationally, that deal with the assessment of the quality of "extra virgin" olive oil and carry out testing procedures for this purpose.

In 2010, the "Carta d'identità dell'olio extra vergine d'oliva" (proof of origin for extra virgin olive oil) was officially launched in Italy: the core of this project is the creation of a Database with maps of all areas of origin of olive oil. The aim of this initiative is to create an instrument with which the entire development of an "extra virgin" oil can be seamlessly traced from the olive to the bottle on the shelf - hence the name "carta d'identità", in English " Identity card": Because just as this is intended to enable the precise identification of the owner, the "carta d'identità dell'olio" aims to clearly prove the origin of a bottle of olive oil.

The project, which goes by the abbreviation "CDI OEVO", is currently being managed by the CNR Institute in Pisa, a research facility.