A recent segment on CBS’ “60 Minutes” stated that 75 to 80 percent of the Italian olive oil imported into the United States isn’t extra-virgin oil at all. In some cases, the report stated, it isn’t even made from olives, but is a cheaper vegetable oil such as sunflower, with chlorophyll added for color and powdered beta-carotene for flavor.

In other words, you might be paying a hefty price for something that isn’t the genuine article.

I found this alarming, as I value olive oil for its health benefits as well as its flavor, and I have always sought out Italian oils for this reputation of quality. I needed to know how to judge a good olive oil, and so I reached out to chef Donato Loperfido, owner of the former Donato’s restaurants in Kahala and Manoa.

Loperfido invited me to a blind tasting of his own olive oil imports, to show me how quality Italian extra-virgin olive oil should look and taste.

Defining standards of quality

The quality and labeling of olive oil in Europe is judged under the rules of the International Olive Oil Council; these standards are adhered to by all countries in the Mediterranean Basin. Labeling takes into consideration taste, but more critical is acidity — the percentage (by weight) of free oleic acids in the oil — and the means of extraction.

True extra-virgin oil is taken from the very first press of whole olives as they’re freshly picked from the trees, usually between October and December, when the olives growing in various regions of Italy are black or dark purple. All virgin oils are extracted without use of chemical treatments or solvents. Rather, they are pressed or extracted from the olives by mechanical means only, adhering to strict thermal conditions, as heat can alter the chemical structure of the oil. “Virgin” also indicates that the oil is pure and unrefined, boasting the highest levels of antioxidant polyphenols — micronutrients that play a role in staving off degenerative and cardiovascular diseases.

Following the first or extra-virgin press, subsequent presses produce — in declining order of quality — virgin olive oil, ordinary virgin and lampante virgin.

Loperfido owns Flavors of Italy, a wine import business he established in 2005, focused on premium Italian wine from unique grape varietals and quality, extra-virgin olive oils. He anticipates opening a fine Italian foods shop this fall in Honolulu.

Tasting the differences

For the purposes of our tasting, Loperfido poured only oil from Italy, and the advice on these pages is specific to olive oil imported from that country. Quality oil is available from elsewhere in the Mediterranean Basin as well as the United States, but I wanted to know how to avoid fakes masquerading as fine Italian extra-virgin oil.

“There are great-quality oils from Spain and other European countries besides Italy, but we’re not talking about those,” Loperfido said. “We are talking about fake versus the real thing. These fake oils are made with chlorophyll and cheap oils. And they are not even Italian!”

If you’ve never poured olive oil onto crusty, fresh-baked bread until your slice rests in a rich, green puddle, then you haven’t been eating bread the right way. Or at least, you haven’t been enjoying it the Italian way.

It goes without saying that this must be attempted only with the best extra-virgin olive oil.

Our tasting took place around a heavy wooden table in the Flavors of Italy office, off Ward Avenue. Surrounded by wooden crates of fine wine and pictures of Italy, we sat down to a blind tasting of six oils with Loperfido and his sales director, Ian Bishop. We were treated to a brief history of olive oil production and then an informal walk through the steps for tasting oils, which, as it turns out, are similar to the steps in a wine tasting.

We examined the color of each extra-virgin oil and compared them. Next, we gave each sample a sniff, to see whether we could detect any differences. While practiced wine tasters develop a rich vocabulary to describe their noses’ and palates’ findings, I was fresh out of adjectives.

Descriptors like elderberry, leather and chocolate failed me when up against a series of olive oils. Bishop and Loperfido supplied the kinds of elements we should be looking for: nuttiness, fruitiness, earthiness.

“It should be reminiscent of olives,” Bishop explained simply.

Next, we sipped, rolling each oil around in our mouths as you would when tasting wine. I’ll admit that this was a little hard to handle, unaccustomed as I am to swirling pure oil in my mouth. But I was able to taste qualitative differences, and even differences that might be attributed to terroir, or the land where the olives were grown.

Loperfido did include one bottle of commonly available oil that he’d picked up at a grocery store. This one smelled bitter and chemical when compared with the earthy, green-grass notes of the other oils.

Why extra-virgin?

In Italy, Loperfido said, it’s routine to cook with extra-virgin olive oil, even when sauteing and pan-searing. “If we make panzerotti (a savory turnover) at home in Italy, we fry them in extra-virgin olive oil.”

The smoke point of olive oil – the temperature at which fats in the oil begin to break down — is quite high relative to other cooking oils (325 to 375 degrees). Oils heated past their smoke point release free radicals and acrolein, a chemical compound that can lend a nasty, acrid odor and taste. As oils break down, they can also reach their flashpoint, at which they release gases that can ignite.

Olive oil’s high smoke point means you can get your pan quite hot, which any chef will tell you is an excellent thing when searing meat or fish on the stovetop. The higher an oil’s smoke point, the more versatile it will be in your kitchen.

Given the high cost of extra-virgin olive oil, Loperfido recommends using less expensive virgin oil for things like deep-frying but extra-virgin for stovetop cooking of smaller quantities. Mostly, he said, Italians use extra-virgin as a finishing oil — drizzled over pasta, a salad or a piece of grilled fish to add exceptional flavor.

Even in Hawaii his family purchases extra-virgin olive oil in 250-liter containers. Other oils, he notes, aren’t as healthy and are lacking in flavor. While he concedes that not everyone can afford to use it so lavishly, he recommends using quality extra-virgin olive oil as a topper to almost any dish.

“That’s why we call it a finishing oil,” Loperfido said. “It gives beautiful flavor to pasta e fagioli (pasta and beans), on bruschetta or caprese salad. You want to taste a nice nuttiness and fresh-cut grass that grabs you on the back of the throat. That’s the antioxidants!”

Quality extra-virgin olive oils are generally priced at or above $40 to $44 or a 500-millileter bottle, compared with supermarket brands that can cost as little as $9 for a bottle of the same size.

Whole Foods and R. Field Wine Co. will let you taste their products before you buy, as will Island Olive Oil Co. in Ward Centre. Taste the difference between a quality bottle and the standard one you keep in your kitchen cupboard.

Finally, a word on storage. Olive oils have a best-before date, so be sure to keep yours in a cool, dry place and use them before they expire.

We’d like to recommend pouring it over some quality bread and breaking the richness with some salty, quality olives or sweet and delicious sun-dried tomatoes served on the side. Enjoy it as we did, with a chilled glass of sparkling Franciacorta, made in the Lombardy region of Italy, surrounding Milan.

Choosing a good Italian olive oil

The olives: The label should specify the olive varietals used in production. Though more than 700 varietals are grown in Italy, if leccino, coratina, frantoio, moraiolo, nostraliana or circiello varietals are listed, chances are it is a good quality oil.

Region of origin: Look for oils from the top-quality producing regions of Puglia, Sicily, Tuscany, Campagna, Sardegna and Liguria, where olive trees were brought by the Greeks some 2,000 to 3,000 years ago. (Puglia produces stronger, greener and nuttier oils than any other region.)

DOP designation: The best quality Italian oils bear a Denominazione Origine Protetta (Protected Destination of Origin) label, usually at the neck. Only DOP-certified products can be marked “traditional” on their labels, as they adhere to traditional methods from harvest to packaging; it is a guarantee that the oil has been produced by Italian farmers and artisans. As an alternative, look for the words “estate bottled,” which means all the olives came from one farm or estate and were pressed on site, not mass produced. As a final option seek out bottles that read 100 percent Italian product, or that bear the name of a town or farm. “Product of Italy,” means only that the contents were bottled in Italy.

Green is good: Never buy olive oil in clear glass bottles. Quality oils should be bottled in dark green glass to protect the contents from light and heat, much like fine wine.

Grades of olive oil

Extra-virgin olive: EVOO is judged to have better taste components; a rich, fruity or nutty flavor, and like the finest wine, must be without defect. Its free acidity, expressed as oleic acid, is no more than 0.8 percent (or 0.8 grams per 100 grams).

Virgin olive oil: Like extra-virgin oil, virgin oil must be extracted using mechanical means only, using a press or centrifuge, but without use of solvents, chemical intervention or heat. It may have up to 1.5 percent acidity.

Ordinary virgin olive oil: Ordinary virgin oil may have notable defects, and as such, it’s considered inferior. It may have acidity of up 3.3 percent. Following the EU’s lead, the International Olive Oil Council may eliminate this category from its gradation system, requalifying ordinary virgin as lampante virgin.

Lampante virgin: Originally used for things like lantern lighting (“lampante” means “glaring” in Italian). Lampante oil may be refined to make it edible, but this interferes with the oil’s original acid structure, so it can no longer be considered virgin oil. To be sold as food, it must be refined.

Pomace: Produced from leftover olive oil paste and of the lowest quality, not virgin. It is often mixed with virgin oils and used in American restaurants. In Italy, however, like lampante virgin oil, it is not considered fit for consumption.

Meghan Thibault is a writer and wine lover who lives in Kailua. She holds a Level 3 advanced award in wines and spirits from the Wine & Spirit Education Trust.