Regional Institute of Wine and Oil

Sicilian Evo Oil, first IRVO certification

While waiting for PGI recognition by the European Union, the first certification in transitional national protection arrives from the Regional Institute of Wine and Oil. The body is in fact recognized by the Sicilian extra virgin olive oil production regulations as a control and certification body.

The authorization to carry out these tasks arrived last June from the Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies. “I express my satisfaction with this result achieved as a result of the professionalism of IRVO employees, also demonstrated in this particular and difficult financial moment at the end of the year which generates profound uneasiness”, declares the director of the organisation, Lucio Monte.

The certified oil belongs to a small oil company in the Messina area, Azienda Agricola Calogera Milio. In fact, it is about two hundred kilos of oil for a total of four hundred half-liter bottles. The varieties are the native ones of the territory in question. A small entrepreneurial reality but one that has decided to carry forward the quality and Sicilian identity. Quality that has also been recognized through this first certification while waiting for the PGI decree to pass in Brussels. Extra virgin olive oil in Sicily represents more than 100 thousand companies, 500 oil mills, 150 thousand hectares of cultivated area with 18 million plants, and an average production of 500 thousand quintals of oil per year. According to the "Sicily" denomination, Sicily extra virgin olive oil can be produced with olives of the 27 island varieties. From the best known Biancolilla, Nocellara del Belice and Nocellara Etnea, Tonda Iblea, Cerasuola, Moresca, Ogliarola Messinese to the lesser known but locally present such as Brandofino, Minuta, Santagatese, Piricuddara, Verdello, Aitana, Bottone di gallo, Cavalieri, Erbano, Lumiaru, Nerba, Mandanici olive tree, Vaddarica, Verdese, Marmorigna. The olives must be harvested and processed exclusively in Sicily and the oil must be bottled within the borders of the region. As with the wine certifications, an organoleptic examination carried out by a tasting panel and chemical-physical tests carried out at the IRVO Laboratory in Palermo, part of the Irvo Multisite Laboratory accredited by ACCREDIA, were also carried out for the oil.