Anyone searching for "the best olive oil in Switzerland" usually lands in a German online shop, or on a comparison site that counts in euros and means the German shelf. There is, however, one olive oil distinction with a Swiss address: the Olive Oil Award – Zurich, run by the ZHAW in Wädenswil.

This article explains who hands out that prize, how an oil gets into the competition in the first place, what gold, silver and bronze amount to in numbers – and why a gold medal is not a shopping tip for next Saturday. Which bottles from the Swiss shelf have actually been examined is a different question, answered in the Swiss olive oil test overview; that is another kind of verdict, and the difference is the point of this page.

Who hands out the prize: the ZHAW in Wädenswil

The organiser is the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), Department of Life Sciences and Facility Management, at its Wädenswil campus on Lake Zurich. The competition has run since 2002; the 2026 edition was its 25th project year, and the ZHAW announced the results on 22 May 2026.

The decisive difference from most olive oil competitions: the oils are not judged by a jury of experts but, since 2002, by a trained sensory assessment panel, the Swiss Olive Oil Panel. According to the ZHAW it is accredited to ISO 17025 and recognised by the International Olive Council.

It is the same panel whose verdicts you know from the Swiss tasting tests: it tasted the Kassensturz tests and the joint test by Kassensturz and K-Tipp of 2 September 2025. How a group of assessors turns into a single number, and what "only virgin" means, is explained in Olive Oil Panel Scores: What Swiss Test Marks Mean. This page is about the award, not the method.

What is assessed, according to the ZHAW, is freedom from defects, balance, purity and aromatic complexity. The order matters: freedom from defects is not a distinction, it is the entry ticket. An oil allowed to call itself "extra virgin olive oil" must by law be free of perceptible defects. The medal is decided after that – on balance and aromatic complexity.

How an oil gets into the competition

This is where the award differs most from a test, and it is almost always overlooked: nobody buys a bottle in a shop. Entrants put themselves forward. Under the regulations, producers, importers and retailers are eligible; by entering, they consent to the sensory assessment by the panel.

The procedure is set out in the ZHAW regulations and changes little from year to year:

  • Eligible are extra virgin olive oils only, in their original containers and with their original labels, compliant with Swiss, EU or IOC requirements.
  • Entry is online, months before the award ceremony: for the 2026 edition the deadline fell in February 2026. Each oil is given an entry number that has to be visible on the containers.
  • Samples are at least four units per oil, totalling at least three litres – roughly six 500 ml bottles. Shipping and any customs charges are paid by the entering company, and the oils pass into the property of the organiser.
  • Fees are charged per oil. In the 2026 regulations this was CHF 600 for the first oil and CHF 300 for each additional one; the rates for any given year are in that year's regulations.

Two things follow for the verdict. First, the field is self-selected. The oils that competed are the ones whose makers had enough confidence in their own batch to invest a four-figure sum and three litres of stock. An oil that nobody enters cannot win either. Second, a missing medal is not a bad report; most of the time it is no report at all.

Swiss consumer tests work exactly the other way round. Kassensturz, K-Tipp, the FRC and the cantonal laboratories buy anonymously in the shop and examine what nobody wanted examined – which is why they are the ones that turn up the downgrades to "virgin", something a competition structurally cannot produce.

What gold, silver and bronze say in numbers

The medals are not a ranking with fixed quotas: each of the three tiers can go to several winners. How many that is becomes clear when you compare the recent editions.

YearOils assessedGoldSilverBronze
2026 (25th project year)98 from ten countries and regions52724
2025112 from ten countries62023
2024102 from ten countries102126

Three sober conclusions follow from that:

  1. Gold is narrow. In 2026 five of 98 oils went home with gold, in 2025 six of 112 – roughly five per cent of the field in each case. That is a genuine top tier.
  2. A medal as such is broad. In 2026, 56 of the 98 oils that competed received some distinction, so more than half of them. Bronze means: in the better half of a field that consists of defect-free oils to begin with. That is respectable, and it is not a unique selling point.
  3. The numbers move. In 2024 ten gold medals were awarded, eight of them to Spanish oils and one each to an Italian and a Portuguese one. "Gold 2024" and "Gold 2026" are therefore not the same hurdle; the year on the bottle is part of the claim.

Which oil received which medal is published by the ZHAW on the award's official page; the link is in the sources below. We deliberately pass on no names here: with five gold medals, any second-hand attribution would be a guessing game.

"Public OLIO": the audience prize is a different verdict

Alongside the expert assessment there is a second, separate round: a consumer test from which the audience prize OLIO emerges. There the oils are not judged by trained assessors but by lay tasters, who rate them on how much they like them. The prize was awarded for the first time in 2023; back then around 60 private testers per oil rated all 119 entered oils over the months of March and April. In the 2026 edition the public distinguished twelve oils, according to the ZHAW.

For shopping, those are two different pieces of information. The panel medal says how clean and how complex an oil is by standardised criteria. The audience prize says how much lay tasters enjoyed it – and with robust, bitter oils the two can part company.

Why a gold medal does not reach the Migros shelf

That is the practical catch, and it follows straight from the regulations. The oils entered come from producers, importers and traders in ten countries – many of them small operations that ship their bottles from the country of origin to Wädenswil. Nothing in the competition obliges anyone to sell the winning oil in Switzerland afterwards. Three points to keep in mind when you read a medal:

  • The medal belongs to the batch that was submitted. What was assessed is the consignment from one harvest, not the brand for years to come. Olive oil changes more from one harvest year to the next than almost any other food on the shelf.
  • Availability is not part of the assessment. A gold oil can be a farm bottler with a few thousand bottles. Look for the producer's name in the ZHAW list, not for the supermarket brand.
  • Do not mix them up: there are several olive oil distinctions with a similar ring to them, among them the Feinschmecker Olio Award – a different competition with a different organiser. A medal on the label is worth only as much as you know about the competition behind it.

Where this panel's verdict can be read off a bottle from the Swiss shelf is in the tasting tests. On 2 September 2025 the same Swiss Olive Oil Panel assessed 13 of the best-selling "extra vergine" oils for Kassensturz and K-Tipp; the best result, 7 out of 10 points, went to the organic oil from Manor, closely followed by the Greek Iliada sold by Coop.

Those two routes can be combined: the ZHAW medal list shows what a clean, complex oil is capable of at all; the Swiss tests and the price overview show which of it is available and affordable here. Our recommendation for each chain is in Best olive oil in Switzerland, and what the tested bottles currently cost, with litre price and the date of collection, is on the Swiss olive oil prices page.

What the medal is worth to you as a buyer

On balance, the award is useful in two ways. As a yardstick of quality: the gold list shows what an extra virgin olive oil is capable of at all – provided you order from the producer or from an importer. And as an anchor of trust for the Swiss tests: the panel that hands out these medals is the same one that downgrades bottles to "virgin" at Kassensturz. Anyone who takes the medal seriously has to take the downgrade just as seriously.

What the medal is not: a verdict on price, a promise about shelf life, and no statement at all about a bottle standing on the shelf two harvests later.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Olive Oil Award – Zurich?

An olive oil competition run by the ZHAW in Wädenswil, which has existed since 2002; 2026 was its 25th project year. Extra virgin olive oils that have been sent in are assessed sensorially by the Swiss Olive Oil Panel and distinguished with gold, silver or bronze. The results of the 2026 edition were announced on 22 May 2026.

How many oils received a medal in 2026?

Of 98 extra virgin olive oils assessed, from ten countries and regions of origin, five received gold, 27 silver and 24 bronze – 56 oils in all, so more than half of the field. Gold therefore went to roughly five per cent of the entrants.

Where do I find the 2026 winners' list?

On the award's official page at the ZHAW, linked in the sources below. That is where you can see which oil received which medal, including producer and origin. We pass on no names here, because the oil-to-medal assignment is only binding at that source.

Can I buy a ZHAW gold oil in a Swiss supermarket?

As a rule, not without further ado. The oils are entered by producers, importers and traders themselves and shipped from the country of origin to Wädenswil; availability at Migros, Coop, Denner or Manor is not part of the competition. The more reliable route is via the Swiss tasting tests, in which bottles bought off the shelf are examined.

Is a gold medal worth more than "extra vergine" on the label?

It says something different. "Extra virgin olive oil" is a legal grade with a minimum requirement: no perceptible defect. The medal is awarded on top of that, for balance, purity and aromatic complexity – but only among the oils that were entered. Every bottle has to meet the grade; for the medal, you have to compete.

What does it cost to enter the competition?

Under the 2026 regulations, CHF 600 for the first oil entered and CHF 300 for each additional one, plus shipping and any customs charges; at least four units per oil, totalling three litres, have to be sent in. The rates for the current year are in the ZHAW's regulations for that year.

Sources