Farchioni Olive Oil: The Four Lines, and What Each One Actually Is
Farchioni olive oil is not one oil. It is a catalogue of more than thirty products organised into four separate lines by Farchioni Olii S.p.A. of Giano dell'Umbria, and the things a careful buyer most wants settled — the grade, the country the olives came from, whether the batch can be traced — all change depending on which of those bottles you have picked up. One of the lines is not even entirely olive oil. This article maps the range from Farchioni's own pages, says plainly which product is which, and picks out the two things the company does that almost nobody else in the category does at all.
For our own oil, see our cold-pressed organic Marrakech olive oil.
The Short Answer
- Farchioni Olii S.p.A. is an Umbrian producer based at Giano dell'Umbria in the province of Perugia. Its catalogue is split into four lines: Farchioni, Il Casolare, Selections and Alta Ristorazione. The family dates its own history to 1780, and we report that as the family's account rather than as an independently established fact.
- Not everything under the Farchioni name is extra virgin. The Farchioni line also contains an "Olio di Oliva", which the company describes as a combination of rectified olive oil and extra virgin; a seed-oil blend called Fior di Vita; and a grape seed oil.
- The Selections line is where the certified designations sit — PDO Umbria Colli Martani, PGI Toscano and a PGI Olio di Roma — alongside Collezione di Famiglia and Olivicoltura Eroica.
- Il Casolare is the unfiltered line, and we have covered it separately and in full, including how its origin claim changes between variants inside the line.
- Farchioni runs a per-lot supply-chain lookup built on IBM Food Trust, in which you enter the batch code from the back label to see where that oil came from. It currently covers two products, not the whole range — but it exists, and almost no competitor has anything comparable.
- It also publishes eleven downloadable certificates, including ISO 9001, ISO 22005 supply-chain traceability, ISO 14001, ISO 50001, SA8000, BRC, IFS, organic, kosher and Demeter. On process certification that is the most complete disclosure we have seen from any olive oil brand.
- What it does not publish is chemistry. Sidr & Stone does not publish a polyphenol figure either — our oil is single-estate, rain-fed, organically grown and cold-pressed within hours of harvest outside Marrakech, and we would rather write that plainly.
Four Lines, and What Each One Is For
The single most useful thing to know about Farchioni is the line structure, because the four lines are aimed at four different buyers and are not interchangeable. Everything in this table comes from Farchioni's own product catalogue.
| Line | What it is | Origin claim | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Farchioni | The everyday supermarket range — Classic, 100% Italian, Fruity, Light Fruity, Organic, Velato, tins | Varies by product; Classic is labelled a product of the European Union | Also contains non-extra-virgin products (see below) |
| Il Casolare | The unfiltered range, including organic and new-harvest variants | Varies by variant within the line | Covered in full in our separate article on the line |
| Selections | The certified-designation and premium range — PDO Umbria Colli Martani, PGI Toscano, PGI Olio di Roma, Collezione di Famiglia, Olivicoltura Eroica | Italian, and in three cases tied to a registered designation | Where the tightest published specifications live |
| Alta Ristorazione | The catering and foodservice range | A standard and a 100% Italian version | Aimed at professional kitchens rather than retail |
If you have a cloudy bottle with a farmhouse on the label, that is Il Casolare, and our article on Il Casolare olive oil sets out the line variant by variant, including which of them carry a 100% Italian claim and which declare only a European Union origin. There is no point repeating it here. What follows is about everything else.
Not Everything Under the Farchioni Name Is Extra Virgin
This is the part that most buyers miss, and it is not hidden — it is simply easy to skim past when a dozen bottles share a brand. Three products in the Farchioni line are not extra virgin olive oil.
Olio di Oliva is described on its own page as "a perfect combination of a rectified, odourless olive oil with a neutral flavour and aroma, and a fruity extra virgin olive oil", and is recommended for frying and baking. In plain terms that is a refined-plus-virgin blend, which is a legitimate and clearly labelled EU category in its own right — but it is a different product from the extra virgin bottles beside it on the shelf, and it will taste of very little by design. Our explainers on refined olive oil and "pure" olive oil cover what that category is and what it is not.
Fior di Vita is not olive oil at all. Farchioni describes it as "a balanced blend of oils extracted from sunflower seeds, corn, linseed, and grapeseed". Grape Seed Oil is likewise a seed oil, described as made from the seeds of Vitis vinifera L. Both sit in the Farchioni line and carry the Farchioni name.
None of this is a criticism — a large producer selling a full oils range is entirely normal, and each product says what it is on its own page. It is a warning about the shortcut. "Farchioni" on the front is a company, not a grade, and the grade is on the label.
The One Thing Farchioni Does That Hardly Anyone Else Does
Farchioni operates a per-lot traceability lookup: you take the batch code printed on the back label, enter it on the company's traceability portal, and see the supply chain behind that specific lot. The system is built on IBM Food Trust, a blockchain-backed supply-chain platform, and the company holds ISO 22005 certification for supply-chain traceability, which its certifications page dates to 2002. The same page says Farchioni was the first to work on traceability; that is the company's own claim, and we leave it as such.
Two honest qualifications. First, the scheme covers a subset of the range rather than all of it — the traceability page lists the Farchioni 100% Italian and the Il Casolare 1780 New Harvest as the tracked products. Second, a lot lookup tells you where the oil came from, not how good it tested. Those are different questions and it answers only the first.
Even with both qualifications, this is a real and unusual strength, and it deserves saying plainly: a shopper can take a bottle of Farchioni 100% Italian, read a code off the back, and get a supply-chain answer specific to that bottle. Almost nothing else on a supermarket olive oil shelf can do that. Traceability is the whole argument for single-estate olive oil, and it is worth acknowledging when a large blender delivers a version of it too.
The Mills, the Groves and the Rest of the Group
Farchioni names four mills on its own site: the Fratelli Farchioni mill at Gualdo Cattaneo in Umbria, Grevepesa at San Casciano in Val di Pesa in Tuscany, Le Mole at Bitonto in Puglia, and a mill at Tuscania in Lazio. The PDO product separately names milling at the family's Fonte Cupa mill, also at Gualdo Cattaneo. Nine olive groves are named. No hectarage or annual volume is published for the olive side of the business.
The Olivicoltura Eroica project — "heroic olive cultivation" — is worth a line of its own. Farchioni's homepage describes Pompeo Farchioni leading a project to recover centuries-old olive trees in difficult terrain, and sells the resulting oil as a named product in the Selections line. Recovering abandoned terraced groves is expensive, slow and genuinely good for the landscape, and it is a more substantial commitment than a sustainability page.
It is also worth knowing that olive oil is one business among several. The group's brand page lists flour under Farine Farchioni, wine under Terre de la Custodia, beer under Mastri Birrai Umbri, and pulses under La Valletta, with distillates sold through the same shop. The company's own history page describes the brewery as the largest craft brewery in Italy and the malthouse as unique in Italy; both are Farchioni's claims about itself, and we report them as such rather than asserting them.
What a PDO Actually Guarantees That "Extra Virgin" Does Not
Here is the most useful thing in this article, and it applies well beyond Farchioni. The Selections PDO Umbria Colli Martani is made, in the company's words, from Moraiolo, San Felice, Leccino and Frantoio olives grown in dry, stony Umbrian ground, harvested and milled the same day at the Fonte Cupa mill. All of that is flavour information. The certification behind it is something harder.
"Umbria" is a registered Protected Designation of Origin for olive oil, held in the European Union's eAmbrosia register under file number PDO-IT-1520 and registered on 25 November 1997. The designation must always be used with one of five obligatory geographical mentions, of which Colli Martani is one — it is not a separate registration of its own. Each mention carries its own varietal composition and its own chemical limits, and those limits are tighter than the extra virgin grade requires.
| Parameter | Extra virgin olive oil (IOC COI/T.15/NC No. 3/Rev. 22, June 2026) | Umbria PDO, Colli Martani mention (product specification in eAmbrosia) |
|---|---|---|
| Free acidity | Not more than 0.80 g per 100 g | Not more than 0.65 g per 100 g |
| Peroxide value | Not more than 20.0 meq active oxygen per kg | Not more than 12 |
| K232 | Not more than 2.50, applied between commercial partners on an optional basis | Not more than 2.0 |
| K270 | Not more than 0.22 | Not more than 0.20 |
| Total polyphenols | No minimum is set | Not less than 125 ppm |
| Sensory panel | Median of defects 0.0; median of fruity above 0.0 | Panel test score not less than 7.00 |
The row that matters is the polyphenol row. The extra virgin grade sets no minimum polyphenol content at all — an oil can be flawless extra virgin and still be low in phenolics. A PDO specification is one of the very few documents in this category that sets a floor. So a certified PDO bottle carries a published minimum even when the producer publishes no figure of its own, which is a genuinely different kind of assurance from a brand's adjective. One caveat, stated because it matters: the specification available in the register is flagged as the version originally submitted, and a later amendment was published in 2014, so treat these as the designation's approach rather than as this season's certificate. For what these compounds are and why fresh oil holds more of them, see our article on olive oil polyphenols.
The other two registered designations in the line check out as well: Toscano is a registered PGI, file number PGI-IT-1512, registered on 21 March 1998; Olio di Roma is a registered PGI, file number PGI-IT-02453, registered on 2 August 2021.
What Farchioni Publishes, and What It Does Not
We looked for chemistry properly before writing this section: 173 URLs in the corporate site's sitemap, 72 URLs in the shop's product sitemap, 14 shop pages, and the product records returned by the shop's own product feed, plus the technical-indications panel on the product pages themselves. There is no free acidity figure, no peroxide value, no K232 or K270, and no polyphenol content anywhere we could reach. The one place a per-lot figure could plausibly live is the traceability portal, which we could not read.
| Detail a buyer might want | Farchioni | Sidr & Stone |
|---|---|---|
| Grade | Published, per product — and it varies across the range | Published — unfiltered extra virgin, cold-pressed |
| Country of origin | Published, per product — European Union or 100% Italian depending on the bottle | Published — plains outside Marrakech, Morocco |
| Cultivars | Published on the PDO product; not across the range | Not published |
| Nutritional values | Published — declared per 100 mL rather than the more common per 100 g | Not published |
| Batch traceability | Published — a per-lot lookup, on two products | Inherent — one grove, one harvest, one lot |
| Process certifications | Published — eleven downloadable certificates | Halal certified |
| Free acidity | Not published | Not published |
| Peroxide value | Not published | Not published |
| Polyphenol content | Not published | Not published |
| Certified organic | Yes, on the organic products | Organically grown, not certified organic |
Several rows go to Farchioni without argument. Eleven certificates you can download and read is a level of process transparency we cannot match and are not going to talk down. Their organic products hold a formal certification that we do not hold at all: our olives are grown without synthetic fertilisers, pesticides or herbicides, but we describe that honestly rather than borrowing the word. And a per-lot supply-chain lookup is a real answer to a real question.
One small note on the Velato product, because it is the closest the range comes to a chemistry claim. Its page says the oil "has more polyphenols and flavors" thanks to a particular approach to filtration. That is a comparative with no comparator and no number attached, which is a description rather than a measurement — and quite separate from the authorised European health claim, which has numeric conditions of its own.
The Objections Worth Raising
"If the label only says Produce of the EU, it can't be good oil." It can. A blended extra virgin has to meet exactly the same grade limits as any other extra virgin, and blending is how a producer at national volume holds a flavour steady from year to year. What you lose is not quality but traceability, and therefore repeatability — which is precisely why the lot lookup is interesting, and why the Selections line exists.
"Eleven certificates sounds like a lot of paperwork and no substance." It is fair to notice that ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 50001, SA8000, BRC and IFS are all management, safety and environment standards rather than statements about what is in the bottle. That is true. It is also true that they are audited by third parties, published in full, and more than most brands offer. Process certification and product chemistry are two different assurances, and Farchioni has one of them.
"Why does an olive oil company make beer?" Because it is a diversified Umbrian agricultural group and always has been — flour, wine, beer and pulses sit alongside the oil. Whether that reassures you or not is a judgement, not a fact. It does mean the olive oil is one division of a larger business rather than the whole of it, which is the opposite of the single-estate model.
Why Sidr & Stone
Farchioni's answer to the traceability problem is technology at scale: mill a great deal of oil, then build a system that can tell you which lot yours came from. Ours is the other answer. We press one grove's fruit once a year, so there is only one lot and only one place it could have come from.
- Single-estate — one family-owned grove on the plains outside Marrakech, Morocco; no blending across origins.
- Rain-fed — no irrigation; the trees take what the season gives.
- Organically grown — no synthetic fertilisers, pesticides or herbicides.
- Single harvest — a small, limited batch; once the season's pressing is gone, it is gone until next year.
- Cold-pressed within hours of harvest — flavour, aroma and polyphenols preserved.
- Unfiltered extra virgin — minimally processed, and it may show natural sediment.
- 100% natural — a single ingredient, no additives.
- 500ml dark glass with a gold label — packaging that protects the oil from light.
- Halal certified.
- 10% of profits to charity, across every product we sell.
- Fulfilment in the UK, EU, and US.
We will not tell you Sidr & Stone is the best olive oil — that would be the very claim this article warns against. What we will say is that our oil is single-estate Moroccan, rain-fed, organically grown and cold-pressed within hours of harvest, that we publish no polyphenol figure and hold no organic certificate, and that the evidence of the care is in the taste, the colour and the size of the season's small batch.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who makes Farchioni olive oil?
Farchioni Olii S.p.A., an Umbrian company based at Giano dell'Umbria in the province of Perugia, with mills in Umbria, Tuscany, Puglia and Lazio. Olive oil is one division of a wider family agricultural group that also produces flour, wine, beer and pulses.
Is Farchioni olive oil Italian?
The company is Italian; the oil depends on the bottle. Some products carry a 100% Italian origin claim, while others — including the Classic — declare a European Union origin, which means a blend of oils from more than one member state. Read the origin line rather than the brand name.
What is the difference between Farchioni's four lines?
Farchioni is the everyday retail range, Il Casolare is the unfiltered range, Selections holds the certified-designation and premium oils including the PDO and PGI bottles, and Alta Ristorazione is the catering range. They are aimed at different buyers and are not interchangeable.
Is Farchioni "Olio di Oliva" extra virgin?
No. Farchioni describes it as a combination of a rectified, odourless olive oil and a fruity extra virgin olive oil, and recommends it for frying and baking. It is a lawful and clearly labelled category, but it is a different grade from the extra virgin bottles beside it.
Can you check where a Farchioni bottle's oil came from?
On some products, yes. Farchioni runs a per-lot supply-chain lookup built on IBM Food Trust: you enter the batch code from the back label to see the chain behind that lot. Its traceability page lists the Farchioni 100% Italian and the Il Casolare 1780 New Harvest as the tracked products.
Does Farchioni publish acidity or polyphenol figures?
Not that we could find. We checked the corporate sitemap, the shop's product sitemap and product feed, the shop's pages and the technical-indications panel on the product pages, and found no free acidity, peroxide value, K232, K270 or polyphenol content. That is the category norm — we do not publish a polyphenol figure for our own oil either.
What does the PDO on the Selections bottle actually guarantee?
More than the extra virgin grade does. "Umbria" is a registered Protected Designation of Origin, and its product specification sets tighter chemical limits than the extra virgin grade requires — including a minimum total polyphenol content, which the extra virgin grade does not set at all.
Is olive oil a medicine?
No. Olive oil is a food, not a medicine. It has a long traditional history — including being honoured in the Prophetic Sunnah — and a substantial body of modern research, particularly around polyphenols, cardiovascular health, and the Mediterranean diet pattern. It can be a worthwhile part of a healthy routine, but it does not cure diseases and is not a substitute for medical care. Be cautious of any olive oil marketed with specific disease-cure claims.
Final Thoughts
Farchioni is a competent, long-established Umbrian producer operating at national scale, and it does two things that its peers largely do not: it publishes its certifications in full and it lets you look up a lot code. Set against that, it publishes no chemistry at all, which is the category's shared failing rather than its own. Neither of those facts is a verdict. Together they describe a company that is unusually open about its processes and entirely conventional about its results.
The practical takeaway is the one this article opened with. There is no such thing as "the" Farchioni olive oil. There is a line, a grade and an origin declaration, and all three are printed on the bottle in front of you. Work out which line you are holding, check the grade — because some of the range is a refined blend and some is not olive oil at all — and then read the origin field before you read anything else. Our guide to choosing a quality olive oil turns that into a method, and our piece on what "Italian" means on an olive oil bottle explains the origin wording in detail.
If one grove and one season are the answer you would rather have, that is the whole basis of what we do. Our cold-pressed organic Marrakech olive oil — single-estate, rain-fed, organically grown and cold-pressed within hours of harvest — is open for pre-order on its limited first harvest. Estimated shipping from November 2026. Fulfilment in the UK, EU, and US.
Pre-Order Sidr & Stone Organic Marrakech Olive Oil — Limited First Harvest →
Disclaimer: This article describes Farchioni Olii S.p.A.'s publicly stated product and company information as published on oliofarchioni.com and farchioni1780.com at the time of writing, together with entries in the European Union's eAmbrosia register; ranges, specifications, origin declarations, certifications and brand practices may change, and readers should check current sources and the label in front of them. Comparisons are made in good faith and in fair terms. Olive oil is a food, not a medicine, and is not a substitute for medical treatment of any condition. For any health concern, consult a qualified medical professional.