By Lisa Radinovsky from Greek Liquid Gold.
Greek olive product innovations at the 2026 Food Expo enabled several Greek olive oil companies to attract curious buyers. New developments on display at the Metropolitan Expo Center near the Athens airport in March included an olive oil bar, unusual olive spreads, convenient olive oil packets, mocktails, and a variety of healthy high phenolic goods.
With olive oil companies well represented at dozens of stands at the Expo, new developments helped some businesses stand out. For example, Maria Gdontaki may have been the first to organize a company’s tasting setup as an “olive oil bar” at the Athens Food Expo. Inspired by an increasingly popular food tourism concept that she saw employed at another exposition, the Savouidakis olive oil bar showcased eight different extra virgin olive oils, with notes about each oil’s aromas, intensity, origins, and olive variety.Five jars of Premium Crete olive spreads lined up on a wooden table
At his Premium Crete stand, Vangelis Varaklas offered a surprising array of olive spreads, including several new blends. Food Expo visitors provided useful feedback on them. The new line of Premium Crete olive tapenades features olive paste blended with unexpected combinations: beetroot and garlic, fig and spices, or prickly pear and curry. The latter is a particularly intriguing mix of olive with sweetness and spiciness.10 small packets of Pellas Nature olive oil in two overlapping arrays in front of a box of their larger olive oil bottles
Pellas Nature also introduced new flavors at the Expo. The latest additions to their line of naturally infused olive oils incorporate chives, shallots, coriander, and white truffle. Moreover, Ioanna Diamanti demonstrated the use of convenient, recyclable new 15-30 ml packets for EVOO or flavored olive oil or vinegar. Suitable for catering and promotion, the packages can be used with one hand once they’re open. Since it is easy to get all of the oil or vinegar out of the packet, almost none is wasted. Clients can request this package for any flavor of olive oil or vinegar. (Regarding a different take on new eco-friendly packages, see this article about paper olive oil bottles.)
Greek olive‑based innovations from the island of Lesvos
For another unique experience with flavored oil, Protoulis brought back the olive oil infused with star anise that this family business introduced last year. This time, it was also featured in a tasty mocktail, combined with carbonated pink grapefruit drink, orange, and spearmint. In addition, Protoulis unveiled two new products: the organic Kolovi variety Morelia extra virgin olive oil with a PGI Lesvos designation, and a tasty hazelnut spread made with that same Morelia EVOO and extra hazelnuts, but no other oils. According to Giannis Protoulis, tests show that this EVOO is eligible for European Union health claims for its naturally high phenolic content and its Vitamin E, both of them six times higher than average EVOOs. This makes Morelia an extra healthy olive oil.
Bottles of olive oil flavored with star anise, extra virgin olive oil, and hazelnut spread in front of glasses of mocktails at the Protoulis stand at the Food Expo
That is true because phenols (also called phenolic compounds, biophenols, or polyphenols) are naturally-occurring antioxidants and anti-inflammatory compounds that are associated with numerous health benefits. As University of Athens Professor Prokopios Magiatis reported last year, “clinical studies conducted over the past 20 years … provide compelling evidence that high phenolic extra virgin olive oil (HPEVOO) can help fight cancer, degenerative diseases of the central nervous system, high blood pressure, cholesterol problems, and the effects of obesity and prediabetes.” There is also evidence that HPEVOO can help regulate blood sugar and improve liver and kidney function, as well as helping to prevent heart attacks, strokes, and Alzheimer’s disease.
Greek olive product innovations made from high phenolic olive leaves
Used for centuries in traditional herbal medicine in the Mediterranean region, olive leaves are also known to be rich in beneficial natural compounds such as phenols. Research on these bioactive components has shown that they have “anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anticancer, antidiabetic, and antihypertensive properties” as well as “cardioprotective activity.”
The demand for high phenolic olive products with these health benefits has been increasing in recent years. So the time is ripe for Anagenesis to launch their range of innovative high phenolic olive oil and olive leaf products. Introducing them to buyers for the first time at the Food Expo, this Greek-Australian company offered samples of still and sparkling olive leaf iced teas, olive leaf hot tea, flavored olive leaf blends for hot tea, and single estate organic extra virgin olive oil (EVOO). They also displayed their olive leaf nutritional supplements and described their new cosmetics.
Anagenesis’s products have all been tested and verified as high phenolic. According to Tim Xenos, who works on formulation, packaging, and marketing for Anagenesis, one can of Anagenesis olive leaf iced tea will provide over 160 mg of phenolic compounds, which is approximately ten times the quantity found in a 15 ml serving (about one tablespoon) of high phenolic extra virgin olive oil with 1000 mg/kg of phenols. When brewed as directed, the teabags dispense a similar dose of phenols.
Greek olive product innovations made with olive oil and olive leaf: 5 bottles and white cans of olive leaf iced tea lined up next to a taller dark glass bottle of high phenolic extra virgin olive oil
Innovative high phenolic Greek olive leaf teas and supplements
Anagenesis teas are all-natural, with no preservatives, no sugar, and no caffeine (except for the caffeine naturally found in the oolong and green tea in two of their hot tea blends). Olive estate manager Vasilios Vassilopoulos believes his olive trees are the only trees in Greece that are verified as being free of 1134 pesticides and chemicals. (Organic certification usually involves testing for approximately 350 elements, not more than 1000.) Moreover, the teas and olive oil have a very pleasant flavor, without the bitterness one might expect from olive leaf tea or high phenolic EVOO (with 0.2% acidity, 700+ mg/kg phenols, for Anagenesis EVOO).
Naturally flavored with mixed berries or pineapple and mango, the sparkling teas are particularly delicious and refreshing. They are lightly sweetened with a plant-derived sweetener that does not raise blood sugar levels. The hot tea is available in a pure olive leaf version, or combined with other teas or with chamomile or lavender. The quality of these innovations has already been acclaimed: Anagenesis was recognized by a European scientific panel for Herbal Tea Innovation and Excellence Within the Mediterranean Diet in 2024 and 2025.
Anagenesis also offers several olive leaf + probiotic nutritional supplements, as well as cosmetics made with high phenolic olive leaves. The supplements have been approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), the Australian version of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which allows the company to make health claims for the supplements. In addition, Anagenesis is working on getting European and FDA approval. Tim Xenos believes these are the only olive leaf supplements in the world that use pure olive leaf, rather than being made from extracts.
Where did these olive‑based innovations come from, and where are they going?
Anagenesis’s organic EVOO is produced and bottled in the Kalamata area in Peloponnese, Greece. The organic olive leaves for their other products are also grown there. The leaves are cut thick for teas and ground to a fine powder for cosmetics and supplements. After freeze drying, the cut and powdered leaves are sent to Australia to be made into canned and bottled iced teas, teabags and loose-leaf teas, supplements, and cosmetics.
Anagenesis’s successful Athens Food Expo product launch followed decades of research and development. Vasilios Vassilopoulos has drawn on 30 years of investigating ways to produce high phenolic olive oil and high phenolic olive leaves. He discovered that the tree age, soil, location, and farming method all make a difference. After a quarter century of study, he felt that he knew enough to start producing high phenolic olive leaves from trees over 150 years old. Additional years of inventing and improving cultivation, production, and processing methods, overseeing engineers’ changes to machinery, and laboratory analysis and verification by Dr. Nikos Thomaidis at the University of Athens were required to get the products ready for the market.
As the health benefits of high phenolic extra virgin olive oil and olive leaves attract growing numbers of consumers to previously obscure products, Anagenesis has done more than jump on the bandwagon. After spending decades exploring the potential of high phenolic olive leaves, they are introducing the public to several new ways of consuming healthful natural antioxidants. Strong interest from Europe to Asia and from North America to the Middle East suggests that Anagenesis products will be appearing in shops around the world, starting soon in Europe.
Rooted in ancient foods, medicines, and traditions, Greek olive product innovations are now introducing fresh possibilities for health and flavor to people around the world.
*Originally published on Greek Liquid Gold: Authentic Extra Virgin Olive Oil (greekliquidgold.com). See that site for recipes with olive oil, photos from Greece, agrotourism and food tourism suggestions, and olive oil news and information.
