The Ministry of Agriculture also rejects this method, which may affect products such as olive oil
Madrid, March 22, 2016.
The European Union values the impact of the “nutritional semaphore”, the model used in the United Kingdom for the classification of foods according to their content in fat, sugar or salt. Spain has already expressed against this system considering that it does not offer correct information in all cases. In this sense, INNOLIVA warns of the risk involved in olive oil, which can be presented with a label that does not correspond to it, even though its benefits are more than confirmed.
The nutritional semaphore, which until now has only been adopted by the British, determines if a food is more or less healthy according to its content in fat, sugar or salt, awarding it a color (red, green or yellow).
The Minister of Agriculture, Food and Environment, Isabel García Tejerina, recently showed her disagreement with this system, since it can lead to a “distortion” of reality and lead to “confusion” for consumers. As an example, he pointed to olive oil, which, due to its high fat content, may receive “a label that does not correspond to it, when its benefits for health are scientifically proven”.
INNOLIVA joins the position of the Ministry and ensures that the oversimplification can be inaccurate, since it considers that products such as olive oil are at risk of being significantly affected by being classified with a color that only judges its components without assessing their true properties.
“Olive oil has a high fat content, which would automatically give it a red label. However, it is not specified that its main fatty acid is oleic, a monounsaturated fatty acid, which has multiple health benefits. Therefore, the classification would be, in this case, totally wrong, “explains Miguel Rico, president of INNOLIVA.
Oleic acid, present in olive oil in 70-75%, is famous for its favorable effects on cardiovascular and liver health. It is proven that it increases the so-called good cholesterol (HDL) and reduces the bad cholesterol (LDL) in the blood, exerting a beneficial action on the vascular system and the heart, and thus reducing the risk of cardiovascular diseases.
In addition, it helps to control other disorders that increase the risk of obesity or diabetes and plays a fundamental role in the maintenance of a healthy body weight, since it intervenes in the regulation of lipid metabolism.
About Innoliva
The company, which has its head office in Pamplona (Spain), owns more than 5,000 hectares of irrigated olive groves, located in Spain and Portugal, where the Mediterranean climate gives the olive tree the ideal environment for the development and maturation of the fruit; and it favors the obtaining of Extra Virgin Olive Oils with excellent sensory qualities.
With its production system, they guarantee the integral traceability of the entire process: from the olive tree to the final customer.
They make their Extra Virgin Olive Oil cold in the shortest time possible from the entrance
