Consumption and culinary applications

In the past five years, world olive oil production was approximately 2.5 million tonnes (see Chapter 1). The main producing countries are Spain, Italy, Greece, Tunisia, Turkey, Syria, Morocco, Algeria, Portugal and Jordan. There is a smaller amount of production in Argentina, Croatia, Israel, Lebanon, Libya, Palestine and France, and even smaller in Cyprus, Mexico, and the US. 

Virgin olive oil has a remarkable stability and can be stored for 18 months or more. The resistance to development of rancidity is combined with a wide array of flavour notes and colour hues, as well as distinct features due to differences between the olive cultivars from which the oil is extracted. These qualities offer opportunities for a variety of culinary applications with little or no processing. 

The taste of olive oil is very often complemented by the sharp taste of vinegar, lemon or tomato. A simple traditional salad dressing is an instantly beaten mixture of olive oil and lemon juice, a rich source of both lipid-soluble and water-soluble vitamins. 

In salads or in cooking, olive oil is usually mixed with herbs and spices, which are also important elements of the Mediterranean diet. Herbs like oregano, rosemary, or thyme and others from the plants of the Lamiaceae family are rich sources of phenolic compounds with strong antioxidant activity (Nakatami 1994, Tsimidou and Boskou 1994, Antoun and Tsimidou 1997, Exarchou el al. 2001). These herbs maintain the nutritional value of the food and enhance the shelf life of the food product. 

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