Star Olive Oil: Who Makes It, and What the Seal Proves
Star olive oil is one of those brands that is easy to buy and surprisingly hard to research. It sits on American supermarket shelves in eight different olive oil variants, the name is generic enough that a search engine struggles to tell a brand query from a review query, and the pages that do come back disagree with each other about basic facts — including which country the company comes from. So this article does the dull, useful thing first: it establishes who makes Star, from the company's own site and from the trade association that tests it. Then it looks at the one credential Star leans on hardest, and asks what that credential actually proves.
For our own oil, see our cold-pressed organic Marrakech olive oil.
The Short Answer
- Star olive oil is made by Star Fine Foods, which its own website signs off as Borges USA. The brand was founded in California in 1898 by the Giurlani family; the Borges Group, a Spanish olive oil exporter, purchased Giurlani USA, Inc. in 1995.
- Both Star's own About page and the North American Olive Oil Association's independent member record state the 1995 Borges acquisition. Where a page you find online says something different — Greek orchards, a different Spanish parent — it does not match either primary source.
- Five Star oils carry the NAOOA Certified seal, with dated entry to the programme: Extra Virgin since 2013, Original and Light Tasting since 2021, Organic Extra Virgin and Robust Extra Virgin since 2023.
- That seal is a genuine credential, and it is narrower than most shoppers assume. NAOOA buys bottles off supermarket shelves and tests them at least twice a year against International Olive Council physico-chemical standards. Its own FAQ says plainly that it does not test every bottle or every lot.
- Star's 0% Pesticide Residue extra virgin line is the most specific claim on any of its pages: every batch independently laboratory-tested to below 0.01 mg/kg across more than 300 possible residues. That is a real, falsifiable specification and we credit it.
- What Star does not publish anywhere we could find is origin per line, harvest date, free acidity, peroxide value or polyphenol content. Sidr & Stone does not publish a polyphenol figure either — we say so rather than imply one.
Who Actually Makes Star Olive Oil
Star's own About page gives a dated three-step history. The brand was founded in California in 1898 by the Giurlani family, and the name was chosen, the company says, as a nod to their American patriotism. In 1995 the Borges Group — which Star describes as Spain's leading exporter of olive oil — purchased Giurlani USA, Inc. Today the site states that Star is part of the Borges International Group, and every page footer reads “Star Fine Foods – Borges USA”.
The North American Olive Oil Association keeps an independent member record that says the same thing in different words: Star Fine Foods traces back to 1898 in San Francisco, when the Giurlani family began importing and distributing olive oil under the Star brand, and the company was acquired by Borges in 1995. Two sources, written for different purposes, agree on the dates and on the parties. That is as settled as brand ownership gets.
It is worth naming the confusion honestly, because it is the reason this question is searched at all. Several widely circulated pages assert incompatible things about Star — one claims the oil comes from the company's own orchards in Greece, another names a different Spanish food group as the owner. Neither matches what Star or the NAOOA publish. There is also a second kind of ambiguity in the query itself: some people typing “star olive oil” are looking for the brand, and others are looking for a star rating, a ranked list, or a review. If you arrived looking for the latter, the section below on what the seal tests is probably what you actually want.
One thing that is genuinely useful in the history: Star began as an importer and distributor, not a grower. That is not a criticism — it is the ordinary structure of the American olive oil trade, and we explain how those roles divide up in our piece on who actually grows, mills and bottles your oil. But it does mean the brand's 1898 date describes a business, not an orchard.
The Star Range, Line by Line
Star lists eight olive oils, and they are not interchangeable. Three of the eight are not extra virgin at all — Original and Light Tasting are olive oil rather than extra virgin, and the company separately sells cooking oil blends and seed oils under the same brand. If you are shopping quickly, that is the distinction most likely to catch you out.
| Star line | Grade | NAOOA Certified seal | What the page emphasises |
|---|---|---|---|
| Extra Virgin Olive Oil | Extra virgin | Yes, since 2013 | Fruity, peppery finish; NAOOA certification |
| Robust Extra Virgin | Extra virgin | Yes, since 2023 | Stronger intensity |
| Organic Extra Virgin | Extra virgin, organic | Yes, since 2023 | Certified organic farming |
| 0% Pesticide Residue Extra Virgin | Extra virgin | Not listed | Per-batch residue testing below 0.01 mg/kg |
| First Harvest Extra Virgin | Extra virgin | Not listed | Early-picked, limited edition, strong olive notes |
| Roasted Garlic Extra Virgin | Extra virgin, flavoured | Not listed | Infused flavour |
| Original Olive Oil | Olive oil (not extra virgin) | Yes, since 2021 | General cooking |
| Light Tasting Olive Oil | Olive oil (not extra virgin) | Yes, since 2021 | Neutral flavour |
Two of those deserve a word of credit. First Harvest is an early-harvest oil — Star describes the olives as gathered before their optimal maturation point, when aroma, taste and colour are at their most intense — and early-harvest oils are genuinely higher in polyphenols and genuinely lower in yield. That is a real production decision, not a label flourish. And a Robust designation next to a standard extra virgin at least tells a shopper the two taste differently, which is more than most house ranges bother to do. If sorting a supermarket shelf quickly is your problem, our guide to choosing the best store-bought olive oil gives a faster method than reading eight product pages.
The NAOOA Certified Seal: What It Actually Tests
This is the credential Star puts forward, and it is worth understanding precisely, because it is the single most useful thing a shopper can learn from this article. The North American Olive Oil Association purchases olive oil from supermarkets and tests it multiple times a year — at least twice — at certified independent laboratories, against the physico-chemical standards set by the International Olive Council for purity and quality. Brands pay a fee to take part and license the seal. If a tested product is confirmed inauthentic, the company must recall it across North America.
| What the NAOOA seal does verify | What it does not verify |
|---|---|
| The oil is authentic olive oil, not adulterated with other oils | That every bottle or every lot was tested — NAOOA states plainly that it does not |
| It meets IOC physico-chemical limits for its declared grade | The polyphenol content, which the grade standards do not cover |
| Samples were bought from shop shelves, not supplied by the brand | The harvest date or the age of the bottle you are holding |
| Testing recurs at least twice a year at independent laboratories | The country the olives were actually grown in |
| A confirmed failure triggers a North America-wide recall | Any product the brand chose not to enrol — the programme is per-product, not per-company |
Read that table in both directions. Shelf-sampled, independently laboratory-tested, recurring authenticity testing with a recall penalty is a meaningfully stronger thing than a brand's own assurance, and Star has carried it on its Extra Virgin since 2013. It is also not a freshness guarantee, not a polyphenol figure and not an origin declaration — and the association is refreshingly direct about the limits itself.
The association is equally direct about the opposite inference. Asked whether the absence of its seal means an oil is not authentic, its answer is emphatically no: it cites a 2015 study by FDA scientists that randomly sampled 88 bottles of extra virgin olive oil bought from supermarkets and online and found no adulteration, putting the risk of buying an adulterated bottle below 5%. NAOOA reported that in 2025, 49% of branded olive oils sold in the US carried its seal, on Nielsen data. So a missing seal is a missing subscription, not a red flag.
The 0% Pesticide Residue Line: A Specific, Testable Claim
Most large-brand marketing language is unfalsifiable. This one is not, and it is the most interesting page on Star's site. The company defines the claim numerically: every batch is tested by independent accredited laboratories to confirm pesticide content below 0.01 mg/kg, screened across more than 300 possible residues. It also sets out, without hedging, how that differs from organic certification — organic certifies the process from start to finish but does not test the finished product for residue, while a residue specification tests the result regardless of farming method.
That is an honest and technically correct distinction, and it is unusual to see a large brand draw it plainly rather than blur the two. It is a per-batch specification with a number and a method attached, which is more than the overwhelming majority of olive oil brands offer on anything. We are not in the business of pretending a competitor's genuine strength is not one.
Two caveats belong alongside it, neither of them a criticism. The claim is about residues, not about quality: an oil can be entirely free of detectable pesticide and still be flat, old or low in polyphenols. And Star's certificates for this line show a non-GMO mark rather than the NAOOA seal, so the residue testing and the authenticity testing are separate programmes covering different products.
Separately, Star's packs carry an American Heart Association certification mark and the site describes health-related positioning around its oils. We do not echo any brand's health claims, including this one, and we would encourage caution about choosing a cooking oil on the strength of a health message rather than on grade, freshness and taste.
What Star Doesn't Publish
Here is the direct answer for anyone comparing bottles: Star publishes grade, flavour descriptors, pack sizes, best uses and certification marks. It does not publish the country the olives were grown in, the harvest date, the free acidity, the peroxide value or the polyphenol content of any line. We looked across the olive oil category pages and the individual product pages before saying so.
| Detail a buyer might want | Star | Sidr & Stone |
|---|---|---|
| Named grade per line | Published | Published — unfiltered extra virgin |
| Independent authenticity testing | NAOOA Certified on five lines, dated | Not enrolled in a seal programme |
| Country of origin | Not published per line | Published — plains outside Marrakech, Morocco |
| Harvest date | Not published | Published — single harvest, once per season |
| Free acidity | Not published | Not published |
| Peroxide value | Not published | Not published |
| Polyphenol content | Not published | Not published |
| Pesticide residue specification | Published — below 0.01 mg/kg per batch on one line | Not published; grown without synthetic pesticides |
Our own column has “not published” in it three times, and one row where Star is straightforwardly ahead of us. That is what an honest comparison looks like. It also shows the trade-off clearly: Star buys credibility through third-party testing of a large, blended, widely distributed product; we buy it through knowing exactly which grove the oil came from and when it was pressed. Neither approach substitutes for the other. For the label vocabulary behind all of this — what “premium”, “pure” and “light” actually mean — see our guide to what premium olive oil really means, and for a method you can apply to any bottle, our guide to choosing a quality olive oil.
The Objections Worth Raising
“The brand pays for the seal — doesn't that make it worthless?” No, but it does define its scope. Participation is voluntary and fee-based, so the seal tells you a company chose to subject a specific product to recurring independent testing, not that the whole market has been audited. The testing itself is done on bottles bought from shops, at independent laboratories, with a recall as the penalty for failure. Paid-for and independent are not opposites here.
“A big brand can't make good oil.” That is not an argument, it is a prejudice, and we are not going to make it. Scale changes what a producer can and cannot tell you — a blend assembled from many growers cannot honestly carry one harvest date — but it says nothing about whether the oil in the bottle meets its grade. Judge the disclosure, not the size.
“Why does it matter that no origin is published?” Because origin is the input to almost every other judgement: growing region drives cultivar, cultivar drives flavour and polyphenol profile, and a named origin is what lets you repeat a purchase you liked. An unstated origin is not a sign of poor oil. It is a sign that the recipe can change between fillings without anything on the label changing.
Why Sidr & Stone
We write about brands people are already researching, and the only version worth publishing is one built from the company's own pages and from independent records rather than from other people's summaries. Star's case rests on third-party authenticity testing at scale. Ours rests on knowing precisely where the oil comes 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.
- Dark glass with a gold label — protective packaging against 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 hold no third-party seal and publish no polyphenol figure, and that we would rather write both of those sentences than leave you to assume otherwise.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who owns Star olive oil?
Star Fine Foods, which signs its own website as Borges USA. The brand was founded in California in 1898 by the Giurlani family, and the Spanish Borges Group purchased Giurlani USA, Inc. in 1995. The North American Olive Oil Association's independent member record states the same acquisition date.
Is Star real olive oil?
Five Star oils carry the NAOOA Certified seal, which means bottles bought from supermarket shelves are tested at least twice a year by independent laboratories against International Olive Council standards for purity and quality. That is a direct answer to the authenticity question for those five products.
Where is Star olive oil from?
Star does not publish a country of origin for its olive oil lines on its website. The parent group is Spanish and the brand is American, but neither fact is an origin declaration for the oil itself.
What does “0% pesticide residue” mean on Star olive oil?
Star defines it as every batch being tested by independent accredited laboratories to confirm pesticide content below 0.01 mg/kg, screened across more than 300 possible residues. It is a result-based specification rather than a farming certification.
Is Star extra virgin olive oil the same as Star Original?
No. Original and Light Tasting are olive oil, not extra virgin — a different grade, made with refined oil blended with virgin oil. Only five of Star's eight olive oils are extra virgin.
Does Star publish a polyphenol figure?
Not that we could find on any of its olive oil pages. Nor does it publish free acidity, peroxide value or harvest date. That is the norm for the category rather than an outlier — and we do not publish a polyphenol figure for our own oil either.
Where can I buy Star olive oil?
Star is a mainstream American grocery brand, strongest in the western United States, and its site runs a store locator and online retail links. It is not generally stocked by UK supermarkets.
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
The honest verdict on Star is that it is exactly what it appears to be: a long-established American grocery brand, owned since 1995 by a Spanish olive oil group, that has bought itself real third-party authenticity testing on most of its range and has attached a numeric, per-batch residue specification to one line. Nothing about that is suspicious, and the pages online implying otherwise are working from worse sources than the company's own.
What it will not give you is the information that separates one extra virgin from another once authenticity is settled — where the fruit grew, when it was picked, and how much phenolic content survived to the bottle. Those are not questions a large blended supermarket brand is structured to answer, and the absence is a consequence of the model rather than a failing of the company.
If those are the questions you care about, buy from someone who can answer them. Our cold-pressed organic Marrakech olive oil — single-estate, rain-fed, organically grown and cold-pressed within hours of harvest — is available to pre-order. 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 Star Fine Foods' publicly stated product information and the North American Olive Oil Association's published certification records at the time of writing; specifications, ranges and brand practices may change, and readers should check current sources. Comparisons are made in good faith and in fair terms. References to Star describe general product observations and are not affiliated with or endorsed by Star Fine Foods. 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.