5 Pro Tips for Buying Olive Oil - How To Buy REAL Olive Oil

when you're shopping for extra-virgin olive oil what are the main considerations you look for if you're merely looking for the lowest price you're likely missing out on getting the highest level of health benefit from a product touted as the cornerstone of the Mediterranean diet and worst case scenario you may not even be getting the real deal so let's break down how to buy olive oil and get the quality you expect [Music] what is extra-virgin anyway for starters let's rule out what it isn't we're talking about pure light and extra light olive oils these products are derived from olive oils that had notable defects and required chemical processing like petroleum-based hexane just to make them edible if you're concerned about calories light olive oil won't help there either as light olive oil has the same number of calories as extra-virgin olive oil but almost none of the health benefits or flavor you might also encounter a product labeled simply virgin olive oil this oil has a higher free acidity level than extra-virgin which is a direct measure of noise quality and as a result will have notable taste defects by definition extra virgin olive oil must have a free fatty acid level below 0.8 percent for an olive oil to be labeled extra virgin it must undergo sensory evaluation by a panel of certified tasting professionals and have zero flavor defects and at least some positive fruity flavor olive oil has continued to make headlines in the last decade with numerous reports of scandal and fraud in the worst cases criminals acquire cheap low-grade chemically processed seed oils and then with a bit of chemistry and maybe even added coloring sell these faked olive oils as extra virgin a more common practice however is finding a product labeled extra virgin that in reality is a low quality virgin oil with bad flavor defects or is a mixture of refined olive oil with a little extra virgin added for flavor this kind of fraud is most suspect when it comes to those too good to be true low priced oils your best bet to avoid fake extra virgin olive oil is to find a merchant or brand you trust we'll have more on this in a moment like wine extra-virgin olive oil has a lot of nuanced flavors and sensations typically determined by things like the olive variety and the environment where the olive trees grow unlike most wines however extra-virgin olive oil does not improve with age because olive oil is essentially the juice of the olive fruit fresh is always best which makes knowing the harvest date of the olives of critical importance to knowing the quality of the oil the harvest season for olives in the northern hemisphere primarily runs from October to December and most of the oil arrives in the US early in the new year the best if used by date for extra-virgin olive oil is typically two years from harvest so in the summer of 2019 a bottle produced in a Northern Hemisphere country with the harvest date of October 2018 is still from the newest harvest extra-virgin olive oil does lose its fruitiness and pungency over time so oils produced within the last year will provide more flavor and polyphenols than older oils also look for early harvest oils produced from green olives they might be a bit more expensive because harvesting olives while still completely green results in less oil but green olives produce oil with lower acidity and a more robust powerful flavour these oils also have more polyphenols which can improve the shelf-life of the earth but Isis harvest certainly plays a role in the quality of your olive oil but there are three more critical factors that can cause severe degradation to even the best olive oil light heat and oxygen when extra-virgin olive oil is stored properly time should be the only thing that affects an unopened container light can be one of the most critical factors when it comes to where you buy your olive oil if you shop for olive oil at your local supermarket be aware that bottle may have been sitting under those stores bright fluorescent lights for days if not weeks or longer this poses less of an issue if you're buying olive oil in an opaque container like tin or ceramic but certainly any extra virgin olive oils sitting on store shelf in a clear glass bottle is prone to significant rapid degradation oil stored in dark glass bottles are better than clear glass but are still not totally protected from light especially if sitting on the top shelf where many supermarkets often display their higher quality oils a newer product on the market the bag and box is one of the best ways you can purchase extra-virgin olive oil the box protects the oil from light and the bag design greatly reduces the oils exposure to oxygen your local farmers market is a great place to find fresh produce that you know is coming direct from a nearby farm when you know the farmer your confidence about the quality of the food you purchase will be sky-high if possible this is the type of experience you want to replicate when shopping for extra-virgin olive oil a quick online search can reveal single estate oils small family farms and organic producers with regionally certified olive oils from around the world many of these small olive oil producers have farms and mills that welcome tourists and if you get the chance to visit a mill during harvest season it can completely change your perspective about what olive oil really is unfortunately we can't all hop on a plane to meet an olive farmer so try to find a retailer passionate about olive oils with representatives who visit the groves and mills to see the process firsthand a knowledgeable merchant should be able to direct you to quality sourced products and as you gain more knowledge you'll soon discover the wealth of variety that can be found in the world of extra-virgin olive oil when you buy from a trusted source or have a brand you know and trust you'll feel better about your having peace of mind about the foods you and your family consumed can go a long way when shopping you will often see bottles labeled first cold pressed this statement has no meaning in today's modernized milling practices and has become merely a marketing term the majority of olive oil producers stopped pressing oil decades ago with most now using mechanical crushers and centrifuges to extract the oil at low temperatures and the oil is only ever extracted once never a second or third time making the entire term first cold-pressed completely erroneous today's proper term is in fact called extraction subscribe to this channel to keep learning about olive oil its health benefits why quality olive oil matters who makes your olive oil and much more

Channel: Olive Oil Lovers

Views: 236,790

Rating: 4.8708434 out of 5

Keywords: evoo, extra virgin, olive oil, shopping, lowest price, health, benefits, mediterranean diet, quality, refined oils, calories, free acidity, fruity, fraud, chemically processed, wine, olive juice, harvest date, green olives, supermarket, first cold pressed, cold extracted, farmer, mill, grove

Id: QgxXywHqUW4

Length: 6min 29sec (389 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 31 2019