Total Quality Indexes for Extra‐virgin Olive Oils

In this article, we propose a new and functional mathematical index, able to describe and compare the nutritional, safety and process quality in extra‐virgin olive oil, introducing a definition of “optimal” oil, through the use of appropriate distances in a N ‐dimensional parameter space. Our index does not pretend to be the unique answer to the need of a “quality index,” but it presents a way through which we can establish if an extra‐virgin olive oil can be considered of high, medium or low quality. The main goal of our index is to link oil chemical quality to its commercial price; furthermore, it can be, in perspective, useful to detect the critical points (such as harvest time, drupe storage, processes and finally oil storage) during all the production chain, and to show how to increase nutritional, safety and technological quality. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS The index could be mainly helpful for consumers because the only indication that they can use today, in order to operate a choice, is in general the price of the oil, which is not necessarily related to its quality. In fact, it is possible to relate our index to the oil price. This tool can also be addressed to producers, to help them to detect the critical points along the whole food production chain and eventually operate the needed corrections to obtain a high‐quality extra‐virgin olive oil, as stated in the Discussion.