Guides
Gold, Silver, Best in Class: A Practical Guide to Olive Oil Award Labels
Award medals on olive oil bottles are everywhere — but not all of them carry equal weight. This guide breaks down how international competitions work, what each tier actually means, and how to read a label so the medal tells you something real.
Are Those Medal Stickers on the Bottle Just Decoration?
Pick up a bottle of extra virgin olive oil in any specialty shop and there is a good chance it is wearing at least one gold or silver sticker: "Gold Award," "Silver Medal," "Best in Class." The instinct that a medal equals better oil is understandable — and often correct. But not every medal carries the same weight. To turn a label into useful information, you need to know which competition issued the award and what standards governed the judging.
Which International Competitions Actually Carry Authority?
There are dozens of olive oil competitions worldwide. The ones the industry treats as genuine benchmarks are either recognized by the International Olive Council (IOC) or operate under their own rigorous, independently established protocols.
The competitions most frequently cited as reference points include NYIOOC (New York International Olive Oil Contest), EVOO World Rankings (London), OLIVE JAPAN, L'Or d'Or (Paris), and ATHENA IOOC (Athens). NYIOOC, for example, receives thousands of entries from more than 30 countries each year and is reported to follow panelist qualification standards recognized by the IOC. Some regional contests, by contrast, apply only their own internal criteria, which can make their medals comparatively less rare and less authoritative.
For a consumer standing in a shop, the single most practical first check is this: find the competition name on the label. A medal that appears without any named source is difficult to verify and should be treated with caution.
Gold, Silver, Bronze: What the Tiers Actually Mean
Detailed criteria differ from one competition to the next, but most major international contests base their judging on the IOC's sensory evaluation guidelines, updated in 2022. According to IOC documentation, the organoleptic assessment of extra virgin olive oil requires trained panelists to score both defect intensity and positive attributes — fruitiness, bitterness, and pungency — on a 0–10 scale.
Those scores are then measured against each competition's own cut-off thresholds to assign Gold, Silver, and Bronze tiers. NYIOOC, for instance, operates with only two tiers — Gold and Silver — and according to 2024 results data, Gold awards went to approximately 48% of entries. That figure looks high at first glance, but it reflects the fact that oils failing to clear the minimum threshold are excluded from the results entirely; the published list shows only the oils that passed.
The upshot: a Gold award does not automatically place an oil at the very top of the field. Within the Gold tier, the distribution of scores still matters.
What Does "Best in Class" Mean?
Even more striking than Gold or Silver is the designation Best in Class (BIC) — sometimes called Best of Show. This title is not simply a reward for clearing a threshold. It goes to the highest-scoring entry within a defined category.
Most competitions organize entries by harvest timing (Early Harvest versus Medium or Late Harvest), intensity (Delicate, Medium, or Robust), or composition (single-variety versus blend). Only one or two oils in each category can earn Best in Class, which means the bar is set above even a Gold award.
According to the OLIVE JAPAN 2023 judging report, BIC recipients represented fewer than 5% of all entries in that competition. A Best in Class label — assuming the competition itself is credible — is therefore a substantive quality signal, not a marketing flourish.
Four Steps to Reading an Award Label Intelligently
When using award labels to guide a purchase, working through these four points in order is a reliable approach.
Step one: identify the competition. Check that a specific, named competition — NYIOOC, EVOO World Rankings, OLIVE JAPAN, or another recognized contest — appears next to the medal graphic. No name, no traceable source.
Step two: check the award year. Olive oil is a food that degrades with exposure to light and oxygen. A label from three or more harvests ago tells you little about the quality of the oil in the bottle right now. Where possible, favor awards from within the past two seasons.
Step three: distinguish the tier. Note whether the award is Gold, Silver, or Best in Class. A larger graphic or more elaborate design on the sticker does not indicate a higher tier.
Step four: cross-reference acidity and polyphenol figures. Award medals reflect organoleptic evaluation — aroma and taste — so they are complemented, not replaced, by chemical quality indicators. According to the IOC, the maximum free acidity permitted for extra virgin grade is 0.8%, and many high-performing oils fall at or below 0.3%. When polyphenol content (expressed in mg/kg) is also declared on the label, you have a more complete picture of quality.
A Medal Is a Reference Point, Not a Guarantee
Entering a competition costs money and requires administrative effort. Many small-scale and family-run producers make excellent oil but never submit it for judging. At the other end of the spectrum, brands with large marketing budgets sometimes enter multiple competitions across multiple seasons specifically to accumulate medals.
A medal is best understood as a useful reference point, not a sufficient condition for quality. A bottle that transparently declares its harvest year, origin, cultivar, bottling date, and producer details is already giving you reliable information — with or without an award sticker. When credible competition recognition and that kind of transparent labeling appear together on the same bottle, the case for reaching for it becomes considerably stronger.
Frequently asked questions
- Are gold medal stickers on olive oil bottles actually meaningful?
- They can be — but only if you know which competition awarded them. Medals from internationally recognized competitions such as NYIOOC or OLIVE JAPAN follow strict sensory evaluation protocols, while medals from lesser-known regional contests may reflect far more lenient criteria. The competition name should always appear alongside the medal; if it doesn't, the award is difficult to verify.
- What is the difference between a Gold medal and Best in Class in olive oil competitions?
- A Gold medal means an oil cleared a competition's minimum quality threshold. Best in Class (BIC) goes further: it is awarded to the highest-scoring entry within a specific category — by harvest timing, intensity, or variety. According to the OLIVE JAPAN 2023 judging report, BIC winners represented fewer than 5% of all entries, making it a meaningfully rarer distinction than Gold alone.
- Which olive oil competitions are the most reputable?
- The competitions most widely cited as reference points in the industry include NYIOOC (New York International Olive Oil Contest), EVOO World Rankings (London), OLIVE JAPAN, L'Or d'Or (Paris), and ATHENA IOOC (Athens). NYIOOC, for instance, receives thousands of entries from more than 30 countries each year and is reported to follow panelist standards recognized by the International Olive Council (IOC).
- How old can an award label be before it stops being useful?
- Olive oil is sensitive to light and oxygen, and quality changes over time. An award label from three or more seasons ago gives you little reliable information about the oil in the bottle today. Wherever possible, prioritize products whose medals come from the most recent one or two harvest seasons.
- Is an olive oil without any award medals necessarily lower quality?
- Not at all. Entering competitions involves fees and administrative effort that many small family producers cannot or choose not to take on, even when their oil is excellent. Conversely, large brands with substantial marketing budgets sometimes enter multiple competitions simply to accumulate medals. A medal is best treated as a reference point rather than a guarantee. Transparent labeling of harvest year, origin, cultivar, and bottling date is just as telling — and when that information appears alongside a credible award, it makes for the most solid basis for a purchasing decision.
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