ITALY WINS OLIVE OIL CONTEST IN ISRAEL

FROM KOSHER TODAY

Italy Wins First Olive Oil Competition in Israel
Jerusalem…by Idele Ross, KT Israel Bureau Chief…Italy took first place in a first-ever international Terra Olivo Mediterranean olive oil competition that took place last week at Jerusalem’s luxurious Inbal Hotel. The three-day conference and competition brought together scores of food industry executives, medical and nutritional experts as well as chefs who discussed the benefits of olive oil. Dr. Shaul Eger, founder of a company creating olive oil based products like puff pastry, burekas and non dairy low sugar chocolate spread, said that Israelis consume only 2.2 kilos of olive oil on average compared to 10 times that by the Greeks and production is much lower than that of other Mediterranean countries. Nevertheless Israel is in position to develop new foods and therapeutic products. 60 percent of Israel’s olive oil is produced by Arab farmers.

Thirty judges devoted three days to testing 189 olive oils sent from 14 countries including Italy, Spain, Turkey, Argentina and Chili. The top award went to Italy’s L’Ottobratica Monocultivar. The prestige gold in the Israeli olive oil category went to Birger’s Picholine and the prize for Israel’s best olive oil producer went to Eretz Geshur. Inbal Hotel Executive Chef Itzik Barak who planned and carried out the gala eight course dinner celebrating olive oil for 250 guests told Kosher Today that Israel cannot compete with the olive oil industries of Spain and Italy even though the oil has been in use in this region since Biblical times. He also noted that kosher cuisine relies on olive oil to replace butter in meat dishes. Indeed his dinner which took a month to plan and 50 cooks to prepare, included lamb osso buco, beef fillet, sea bass and ended with ice cream based on olive oil which he says was “gorgeous, really gorgeous”.