Quality control

Santagata company, in addition to direct control over its suppliers through the constant planning of audits, adopts all possible safeguards to guarantee and offer its customers a healthy, genuine product that complies with the strictest European standards for extra virgin olive oil and vegetable oils.

The raw material is purchased only from accredited suppliers, long-standing collaborators of the company.

Before being accepted by the company, each batch of oil undergoes sensory testing by the internal panel, a sample is taken for analysis, and only after the results of the chemical-physical parameters are positive is the oil unloaded from the tanker truck.

Dozens of chemical-physical parameters are analyzed for each oil sample, divided into quality parameters and purity parameters. The purpose of such meticulous research is precisely to detect any fraud or adulteration of the product that cannot be detected through the tasting test alone.

The raw material is purchased only from accredited suppliers, long-standing collaborators of the company.
Before being accepted by the company, each batch of oil undergoes sensory testing by the internal panel, a sample is taken for analysis, and only after the results of the chemical-physical parameters are positive is the oil unloaded from the tanker truck.

Quality Parameters

The following belong to this category: acidity, peroxide number and ultraviolet spectrophotometric constants. Together, they indicate the level of hydrolytic alteration and primary and secondary oxidative alteration of the oil.

These values serve to understand the genuineness of the raw material, its originality and indirectly the ‘freshness’ of the oil. Ensuring the conformity of these parameters means having a precise commodity characterization of the product being observed.

Purity parameters

The evaluation of indices concerning both the glyceridic fraction and some components of the unsaponifiable fraction (such as sterols, aliphatic and triterpene alcohols, waxes) allows to possible to verify that the product being observed follows the exact spectrum of the vegetable oil in question and has not been adulterated in any way with less valuable oils.

We also offer those who request it the possibility of having the report of the official tasting test with an accredited method, for which we rely on the Genoa Customs Office, for a result of the utmost impartiality. As far as the origin of the raw material is concerned, this is fully traced, all data being uploaded daily to the SIAN (National Agricultural Information System) system.

Every day, one of our employees, dedicated exclusively to this task, updates and uploads to the portal of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry all the oil movements relevant to the company. The level of detail is absolute, going as far as the quantity of fractions of a kilogram present in all tanks registered in accordance with MiPAAF Decrees No. 8077/2009 and No. 16059/2013.

Certifications

Santagata’s commitment to the quality of its products and compliance with production and management procedures is also expressed through actions and processes that have led the company throughout the years to obtain numerous prestigious certifications.