The difference between organic and regular extra virgin olive oil

Research between organic and non-organic olive oils (or anything else) is very difficult. This is due to the fact that you can’t have an organically certified olive grove next to a non-organic grove. The reason for this is the pesticide use and water runoff between groves has to be considered. If one grove was making use of pesticides, herbicides, insecticides etc. then an organic certifying body would not credit a grove that sits too closely to it with organic status, the possibility of contamination is too high.

For a scientific study to be successful and draw out meaningful conclusions, then certain factors have to be controlled. With the distance constraints on an organic and non-organic olive grove, it becomes almost impossible to control for the factors that may affect olive growth like sunlight, access to water, and soil quality. As such, questions like ‘does organic taste better?’ become very hard to answer scientifically, and probably depend more on other factors anyway.

One question that is easier to answer however, and doesn’t require trying to control for multiple other variables, is ‘is organic better for you’. The answer to this is: most likely, yes. Some olive varieties are less hardy and more susceptible to disease or poor yield, so producers might opt for pesticides to reduce these issues. The well known issue with pesticides though, is the effect on our health. PAN UK (pesticide action network) draws attention to the fact that 2.6 million kilograms of glyphosate are sprayed on UK land in one year. The WHO declared in 2015 that glyphosate is probably carcinogenic to humans, with “strong” evidence of genotoxicity—which is the property of chemical agents that damage the genetic information within a cell causing mutations, which may lead to cancer.

Although this stat from the UK is alarming, the UK is not the most prolific user of pesticides and it's important to consider the pesticide use in countries where olive oil is grown the most. When you look at a table of pesticide usage by country and take into account Kg of pesticide per hectare of cropland, the UK clocks in at 3.2, but Italy—the second largest olive oil producer in the world—uses 6.1 Kg per hectare. This stat makes Italy currently the 11th most prolific user of pesticide in the world.

It is possible to produce a safe, residual free olive oil without the organic certification, but it is a lot harder for a consumer to find these examples. It’s quite rare for a producer to go out of their way to undertake additional analysis and testing and then publish the results online. One such example is Blueprint, an olive oil endorsed by longevity proponent Bryan Johnson. The costly (for both producer and consumer) organic certification is a way to be sure your extra virgin olive oil is produced to the highest and safest standards possible.