Guides
EVOO Medal Labels: How the Three Major Awards Actually Work
Gold and silver medal stickers appear on many EVOO bottles, but the contests behind them differ significantly in scale, methodology, and what a win really signals. Here is how NYIOOC, Olive Japan, and World's Best Olive Oils each operate—and how to read what those labels mean at the shelf.
Translated from the Korean edition, originally published April 15, 2025 · read the original
Premium EVOO bottles often arrive at retail with gold or silver medal stickers already applied—NYIOOC Gold, Olive Japan Premier, World's Best Olive Oils Top 100. For shoppers, deciding how much weight to give any of those labels is not straightforward. Drawing on the 2025 season results, here is a look at how each of the three most commonly cited awards operates and what a medal actually signals at the shelf.
NYIOOC: The Largest Competition by Entry Volume
Results for the NYIOOC (New York International Olive Oil Competition) are announced each year between April and May in New York, and the event is currently considered the world's largest EVOO competition by number of entries. According to Olive Oil Times, in 2025 producers from more than 30 countries participated, and 742 products received either gold (517) or silver (225) medals. By country, Italy led with 200 awards, followed by Croatia with 125 and the United States with 92.
Judging is conducted as a blind tasting by an international panel. Fruit character, bitterness, pungency, and the presence or absence of defects are each scored on a five-point scale in an approach that follows EU sensory standards but applies stricter cut-off thresholds. In the 2025 season, 417 entries were single-cultivar oils, 325 were blends, and 279 were certified organic—a sign that the single-cultivar category continues to grow as a share of entries. Because the total number of awards is large, a gold medal does not place a product in the top one percent of all EVOO produced globally. It does, however, confirm that the oil was free of sensory defects and fresh at the time of judging—a meaningful baseline check.
Olive Japan: An EU-Methodology Contest Positioned for the Asian Market
Held in Tokyo each spring, the Olive Japan International EVOO Competition is regarded as the award with the strongest footprint in Asian retail. In 2025, 803 products from 29 countries were entered, and 590 received medals—a pass rate of approximately 75 percent. The breakdown was 8 Premier medals, 339 gold, and 237 silver.
Judging involves 19 panellists from 11 countries in a blind tasting format, with scoring calculated using the double-dummy method specified in EU Regulation 2022/2104, producing results expressed as median values and robust coefficient of variation. Entry numbers are smaller than NYIOOC and the overall pass rate is higher, but strong shelf visibility in Japan, South Korea, and China is considered a practical advantage for producers targeting East Asian markets. The Premier medal—the competition's top grade—is awarded to roughly one percent of entries, preserving meaningful differentiation at the highest tier.
World's Best Olive Oils: A Cross-Competition Rankings Aggregator
World's Best Olive Oils (EVOOWR) is not a competition in its own right. It is a rankings platform that converts results from approximately 20 international contests—including NYIOOC, Olive Japan, Mario Solinas, and Sol d'Oro—into a cumulative annual ranking. In the 2024–25 season, producers from Italy, Spain, Portugal, Croatia, and Turkey featured prominently at the top of the rankings. Because the scoring structure is cumulative, a producer who medals consistently across multiple panels accumulates a higher score than one with a single strong result. This makes the ranking a useful reference for assessing whether a producer has been recognised reliably by diverse judging panels, rather than excelling at a single event.
Reading the Label at the Shelf
Industry guidance on medal labels begins with one practical check: confirm which crop year the award was tied to. A 2023-season gold medal still affixed to a bottle in 2025 is a genuine award—but it speaks to that season's oil, not necessarily to the freshness of the product in the bottle today. A track record of awards across multiple competitions over several seasons is generally considered a more reliable quality signal than one or two medals from a single contest.
It is also worth keeping in mind that entry costs and logistics mean a significant number of high-quality producers never submit to competitions at all. The absence of a medal sticker is not, by itself, a mark against an oil.
Ultimately, a medal is closest in meaning to a certification that the oil was fresh and defect-free at the moment of judging. Everything beyond that—whether the bottle currently on the shelf is still at peak freshness, and whether the flavour profile suits your palate—requires two things the label cannot provide: the harvest or crush season clearly printed on the bottle, and a taste.
Frequently asked questions
- What is NYIOOC and how reliable is its gold medal?
- NYIOOC (New York International Olive Oil Competition) is the largest EVOO competition by entry volume. In 2025, according to Olive Oil Times, 742 products from more than 30 countries received gold or silver medals. Judging is blind, using a five-point sensory scale modelled on EU standards with stricter cut-offs. A gold medal confirms the oil was free of sensory defects at entry—it does not place it in an elite top-one-percent tier, given the scale of awards granted.
- What does an Olive Japan Premier medal mean?
- Olive Japan's Premier medal is the competition's top grade and is awarded to roughly one percent of entries. In 2025, only 8 Premier medals were given out of 803 entries from 29 countries, meaning it carries strong discriminating power even though the overall pass rate across all medal tiers was approximately 75 percent.
- Is World's Best Olive Oils a competition or a ranking?
- World's Best Olive Oils (EVOOWR) is not a standalone competition. It aggregates scores from approximately 20 international contests—including NYIOOC, Olive Japan, Mario Solinas, and Sol d'Oro—into an annual ranking. Producers who medal consistently across multiple panels accumulate higher scores, making it a useful gauge of cross-panel recognition rather than a single-event result.
- How should I interpret a medal when buying olive oil?
- Industry practice is to check the crop year associated with the award first. A 2023-season gold medal on a bottle sitting on shelf in 2025 is a genuine award, but it says nothing about the freshness of the oil in that bottle today. Multiple medals across different competitions over time are generally considered a more reliable signal than a single award. It is also worth noting that many high-quality producers do not enter competitions at all, due to entry costs and logistics.
- What is the single most important thing to check beyond the medal?
- The crush or harvest season printed on the label. A medal confirms the oil was sensorially sound at the time of judging; whether the bottle on the shelf is still fresh is a separate question that only the harvest date—and ideally a taste—can answer.
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