Extra Virgin Olive Oil: From Farm to Fork to Health - Recent Advances and Future Directions

Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), the highest quality olive oil, is valued for its organoleptic and nutritional characteristics. Furthermore, its consumption is spreading beyond the Mediterranean region, where it is the primary source of dietary fat. Consumers are increasingly interested in premium quality EVOO, which is distinguished by its monounsaturated fatty acids content and significant levels of phenolic and other antioxidant compounds with health-promoting and sensory qualities. Besides their antioxidant effects, these components have attracted attention due to their anti-inflammatory properties and their potential role in the prevention of several noncommunicable diseases (cardiovascular diseases, cancer, type-2 diabetes, or obesity) and age-related cognitive decline, in which inflammation is an important etiologic factor.

The production of extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) faces several challenges, including the increasing global demand for high-quality EVOO amid the impact of climate change. Therefore, it will be necessary to introduce innovative changes in the production process in the coming years, such as the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices, the use of emerging technologies to ensure the quality of the EVOO, as well as to recover and reuse the olive waste.

The increasing consumption of EVOO, used both for dressing salads and cooking, has been driven by growing awareness of its health benefits, which have been demonstrated by epidemiological and clinical data.
The promotion of healthy dietary patterns, such as the Mediterranean diet, are key public health strategies. Moreover, it is necessary to identify which foods and components of this dietary pattern are responsible for the health benefits associated with it. Thus, randomized controlled clinical trials are needed to understand the underlying mechanism of action of EVOO and to elucidate and provided further evidence for its health-promoting properties.

In this Research Topic, we are looking for articles focusing on:

1. Innovative ecological agronomic practices affecting the chemical composition of EVOO.
2. Innovative methods to tackle EVOO adulteration/track EVOO authenticity, origin, and quality.
3. Circular bioeconomy for EVOO waste and by-product valorization
4. EVOO chemical composition transformation during cooking and storage and interaction between EVOO and other foods.
5. Identification of the underlying mechanism of action of the health properties of EVOO components (in silico and/or in vivo).
6. Identification of novel biomarkers of EVOO consumption in order to objectively determine its intake.
7. Health effects associated with EVOO and its bioactive components consumption, epidemiological data, clinical trials in humans, systematic reviews and/or meta-analysis in human studies.

Keywords: olive oil, metabolomics, dietary fats, monounsaturated fats, Mediterranean diet, cooking oil

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.