To begin with, olive oil is a world commodity, such as sugar or wheat, and, therefore, became the subject of the "International Olive Oil Agreement" in 1959. In light of the growing international trade, this agreement was designed to control the standards for the production and quality of olive oil and was administered by the International Olive Oil Council in Madrid, Spain. This agreement was amended in 1979 to include specific olive oil definitions and standards. The amendment requires that any product identified as "olive oil" be obtained exclusively from the olive and excluded from the definition is any oil from olives that is extracted by solvents (or re-esterification processes and any mixtures with other oils.

In other words, the designation "olive oil" cannot be applied to olive residue oils. An olive residue oil, by definition, is obtained by treating the olive residue, called pomace, (which is the substance remaining from previous pressings) with solvents. It may be classified as "refined olive-residue oil" or "refined olive-residue oil and olive oil". These classifications are suitable for human consumption.

The latter classification has subcategories: Crude Olive-Pomace Oil, Refined Olive-Pomace Oil or Olive-Pomace Oil. It sounds like the one you are asking about is the last one.

Olive-Pomace Oil is a blend of refined olive-pomace oil and virgin olive oil fit for consumption as is. Once again, however, in no event whatsoever may it be called "olive oil" according to the International Olive Oil Council rules.

I would like to say that I would never recommend olive-pomace oil to anyone. It has a very poor quality ranking in the list of oils.

Constantine Alexander
Certified Olive Oil Consultant