Normative evolution and quality production. The case of olive oil

The olive oil sector is of notable economic and social importance in the province of Foggia. In this paper a significant number of oil samples produced in the countryside surrounding the province of Foggia from 1998-99 to 2001-2002 have been analysed in order to verify their quality, taking into consideration also the periodic revision of the body of legislation from the European Union which is constantly restricting its parameters, like for example the EC Regulation 1513/2001 which will come into effect on the 1st November 2003. The characteristic taken into consideration was free acidity, as defined by the EEC regulation 2568/91. In this paper we limited ourselves to consider only this parameter since the aim was to verify what effects the EC regulations 1513/2001 could have on the province of Foggia. If you consider the data obtained and the classification provided by the current body of legislation, you can see that almost all the samples are included in the category of extra-virgin olive oil. These considerations are valid even in view of the new EC Regulation 1513/2001 which will come into effect soon and which, as we have already said, provides for a different olive oil classification. As regards the oil produced in the province of Foggia, the research carried out allows us to state that it is undoubtedly of a higher quality.