You buy olive oil because you want to eat healthier. But have you considered that extra virgin olive oil, for which you spend a lot of money, may contain questionable substances and chlorophyll, which gives the same taste as olive oil, and that you are actually using soy or other cheaper oils?
Tom Mueller, author of Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil, claims that 70 percent of extra virgin olive oil worldwide is diluted with other oils and substances unknown to the consumer, so it's not very good for health.
Mueller claims that the quality of extra virgin olive oil is under threat worldwide. For example, during the testing of the authenticity of extra virgin olive oil by suppliers, in 2012, no one received a certificate. Screening tests at UC Davis in 2011 produced similar results.
How to recognize real extra virgin olive oil
It's hard to tell just by taste. Even experts can get confused during taste tests. However, there are two ways.
Extra virgin olive oil thickens when cold. When the bottle is in the refrigerator, the oil should become cloudy and thicken. When heated, it becomes liquid again. So, oil that does not thicken in the refrigerator is not pure extra virgin oil.
In addition, real extra virgin oil is flammable and the cotton threads of an oil lamp must burn in this oil. If it does not burn, the oil is not clean.
Buying original extra virgin olive oil
The best place to shop is from local producers you know, but from black (ripe) olives. The next best way is to find a company whose products are certified that the oil is pure and organic. Price is not a reliable indicator.
Extra virgin olive oil
Extra virgin olive oil has no organoleptic defects. It contains a maximum of 0.8 g of free fatty acids (expressed as oleic acid per 100 g of product). It is the richest in aromatic and biologically valuable substances.
