Faced with 100 barrels of unusable olive oil, the UC Davis Olive Center has produced new skin care products, illustrating the university’s commitment to sustainability.
Last year, the UC Davis Olive Center produced 100 gallons olive oil that could not be bottled and sold because manufacturing procedures were not on par with FDA regulations. The Olive Center wanted to come up with a creative way to use the excess olive oil, said Dan Flynn, executive director of the Olive Center.
“We thought as opposed to recycling it, why not use it in skin care products since olive oil has been known to be good for the skin for thousands of years?” he said.
The Olive Center contacted UC Davis alumna Kacie Klein to produce these new skin care products in addition to her current line outside UC Davis. She agreed to do it free of charge, Flynn said.
“Along with our olive oils, [the skin care products] exemplify UC Davis’ commitment to sustainable living,” Flynn said.
The Olive Center is not only utilizing olives that would otherwise go to landfill to produce olive oil, but is now also using the unusable olive oil in an environmentally friendly way, he said.
Currently the olive oil products are being sold exclusively at the UC Davis Bookstore and are priced from $4 to 12.95 each. The products are scented with many different botanical fragrances and are high in natural antioxidants, Flynn said.
The olive products in the bookstore were at a steady sale of 1,000 products per month. If these new skin care products receive a positive response, the Olive Center will continue to produce them, Flynn said.
– Jaspreet Bahia
