Refined and Riviera olive oil

Products labelled simply "olive oil" or "Riviera" are a different thing from extra virgin. They come from the same fruit, but an industrial process sits in between: refining. This page sets out what that process removes and what it leaves.

The shortest way to put it: refining cleans the oil up, and takes its smell and taste along with the dirt. What remains is pale, odourless and content to blend into the background of a dish. Not a bad thing — just an entirely different product.

What refining is

It is the treatment that turns lampante oil, which cannot be eaten as it is, into an edible product. The typical steps:

1. Degumming: phospholipids and water-soluble impurities are removed.
2. Neutralisation: free fatty acids are bound with alkali and separated — this is the step that lowers acidity.
3. Bleaching: bleaching earth adsorbs colour pigments (chlorophyll, carotenoids) and oxidation products.
4. Winterisation: cooling crystallises the waxes so they can be filtered out; the oil no longer clouds in the cold.
5. Deodorisation: steam under high temperature and vacuum strips the volatile compounds that carry smell and taste.

What is removed

• Free fatty acids — acidity falls to 0.3% or below.
• Nearly all aroma and flavour volatiles — the oil becomes odourless and tasteless.
• Colour pigments — what remains is pale yellow, almost colourless.
• Most of the polyphenols — the antioxidant content is largely gone.
• Part of the tocopherol (vitamin E).

What remains

• The triglyceride structure and the fatty acid profile — the oleic acid dominance survives.
• The energy value — unchanged.
• Stability under heat — its smoke point is in fact higher than virgin oil's.

In short, refining preserves the oil's chemical skeleton and removes its personality.

How Riviera is made

Refined olive oil on its own is completely neutral. The product sold on shelves is made by blending some virgin olive oil back in. In Türkiye that product is called Riviera; in Europe it is usually labelled plain "olive oil".

• The blend may have free acidity of 1.0% at most.
• The proportion of virgin oil added varies by brand, and it sets the intensity of colour, smell and taste.
• Alpha-tocopherol may be added to refined and Riviera oils solely to restore what refining removed, capped at 200 mg/kg in the final product. No additive whatsoever may go into virgin oils.

What the label may not say

The Turkish Food Codex is explicit. On refined and Riviera products:

• "Cold pressed" or "first cold press" may not appear — those phrases belong to extra virgin and virgin only.
• Sensory descriptors may not be used — "fruity", "bitter", "pungent" belong to virgin oils.
• No geographical indication may be carried.

See our legislation page for the detail.

The health difference

Because the fatty acid profile is similar, the monounsaturated advantage survives. But the polyphenol content is practically nil, which is why the EFSA-approved claim about olive oil polyphenols protecting blood lipids cannot be used on Riviera products. The compounds that make olive oil interesting nutritionally are precisely the ones refining removes. See polyphenols and health.

Where it belongs in the kitchen

Riviera is not a bad product; it exists for a different job:

• Frying and high heat: a high smoke point and no flavour left behind. The economical option.
• Recipes that need a neutral fat: mayonnaise, some baking and desserts — anywhere extra virgin's bitterness would intrude.
• Volume catering: hotels, restaurants and industrial kitchens, where cost and consistency matter.

For raw use — salads, mezze, finishing — Riviera is the wrong choice: it has no aroma to contribute. That is extra virgin territory.

How to tell them apart

• The label: the grade must be stated. If it says "olive oil" or "Riviera", it is not extra virgin.
• Smell and taste: no fruitiness, bitterness or pungency means no virgin character.
• The laboratory: K270 and Delta-K respond to the presence of refined oil; raised values in an oil sold as virgin raise a suspicion of adulteration.

On refined oil being blended into virgin oil covertly, see adulteration. If you want to know what you are holding, bring a sample to our laboratory.