By Dr. Mercola
Consumption of olive oil has increased more than 10-fold in the U.S.
over the past 35 years, from 29 metric tons (MT) in 1980 to 327 MT in
2015.1
The popularity of the Mediterranean diet has made olive oil a $16
billion-a-year industry. Unfortunately, this popularity has also led to
fraud and corruption.2,3
In his book, “Real Food/Fake Food,” Larry Olmsted, an investigative
journalist and food critic, reveals the dark side of this otherwise
healthy food. Olives and olive oil are well-known for their many health benefits, especially for your heart,4 but using adulterated olive oil will hardly do your health any favors.
In general, people believe the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) is policing and regulating food fraud, but that’s actually not the
case.
Its primary focus is making sure the ingredient label is accurate and
tracking food-related disease outbreaks. The FDA does little in terms
of preventing illegally adulterated foods from being sold.
Vast Majority of Olive Oil Is Adulterated
When it comes to olive oil, tests reveal anywhere from 60 to 90
percent of the olive oils sold in American grocery stores and
restaurants are adulterated with cheap, oxidized, omega-6 vegetable
oils, such as sunflower oil or peanut oil, or non-human grade olive
oils, which are harmful to health in a number of ways.5
Even "extra virgin" olive oil is often diluted with other less expensive
oils, including hazelnut, soybean, corn, sunflower, palm, sesame, grape
seed and/or walnut. These added oils will not be listed on the label,
nor will most people be able to discern that their olive oil is not 100
percent pure.
Chances are, you’ve been eating poor quality olive oil so long — or
you’ve never tasted a pure, high quality olive oil to begin with — you
don’t even realize there’s something wrong with it.
In recent years, the industry-wide corruption has prompted class
action lawsuits against several olive oil companies. For example, in
March 2014, a suit was filed against a company selling a product labeled
“pure olive oil” that was actually olive pomace oil.
Olive pomace is the solid residue left over from traditional olive
oil production, which is then treated with chemical solvents (often
hexane) and extremely high temperatures to extract oil that’s typically
blended into other low quality olive oils to add flavor.6
In December, 2015, Italian authorities also shut down a massive fraud
ring in Puglia, involving 12 different olive oil companies.7
Time to Rethink Italian Quality
Italy is world-famous for its high-quality extra virgin olive oil,
but it would be a mistake to think that just because an olive oil comes
from Italy it must be authentic and high quality. As explained by
Olmsted, most of the olive oil exported from Italy is not their best
product.
Italy does not produce enough extra virgin olive oil to meet even its
own domestic demand, so very little of its highest quality oil ever
leaves the country.
Also, just because it comes from Italy does not mean it was grown and
made there, because Italy is also the world’s largest importer of olive
oil. They buy oil from several countries, including Tunisia, Syria,
Morocco and Spain, which is then blended, bottled and exported.
A label that says “bottled in Italy” is technically true, but it says
nothing about where the olives were grown or pressed, or whether it’s
been mixed with other oils.
Rise of the Agromafia
In January, 2016, 60 Minutes (below) revealed how the olive oil
business has been corrupted by what the Italians refer to as the
“agromafia.”8
According to journalist Tom Muller, featured in the 60 Minutes’
report, the mafia has infiltrated virtually all areas of the olive oil
business, including harvesting, pricing, transportation, and the
supermarkets.
In essence, they’ve infiltrated the entire food chain “from farm to
fork,” to use Muller’s phrase. The fraud is so massive, at least half of
all the extra virgin olive oil sold in Italy is adulterated as well.
That’s pretty astonishing, considering the reverence Italians have for
olive oil.
In the U.S., your chances of getting the real McCoy is even slimmer,
with as much as 90 percent of it being adulterated. Quality can also be
seriously compromised by the fact that olive oil is shipped by boat,
which takes a long time.
It is then stored and distributed to grocery stores, where the oil
may sit on the shelf for another several months. As explained by
Olmsted, olive oil is similar to fresh-squeezed orange juice, meaning it
has a rather short shelf-life.
Pure olive oil that’s minimally processed contains health-promoting
antioxidants and phenolics, provided the oil hasn’t oxidized — and
oxidation is an enormous risk for olive oil. By the time you buy and use
it, the olive oil may already be on the verge of going bad.
‘Use By’ and ‘Sell By’ Dates Are Meaningless
Unfortunately, the “use by” or “sell by” date on the bottle really
does not mean a whole lot, as there’s no regulation assuring that the
oil will remain of high quality until that date.
The date you really want to know is the “pressed on” date or
“harvest” date, which are essentially the same thing because olives go
bad almost immediately after being picked.
They’re pressed into olive oil basically the same day they’re
harvested. High quality olive oil is pressed within a couple of hours of
picking. Poorer quality olive oils may be pressed 10 hours after the
olives are picked. Ideally the oil should be pressed in under an hour
but certainly within a few hours.
Also, “harvest” date, should be less than 6 months old when you use
it. Unfortunately, few olive oils actually provide a harvest date. As
for olive oil in restaurants, more often than not, the olive oil served
for bread dipping is typically of very poor quality and is best avoided.
Consider New World Olive Oils, and Buy Where Taste Testing Is Encouraged
Olmsted, who is also a food critic, suggests considering buying olive
oil from countries besides Italy, many of which produce very fine, high
quality oils. His favorite is Australia, but Chile, South Africa and
even California also produce high quality oils.
“I’m a big fan of Australia,” he says. “Most of the
experts I talked to say, across the board, [Australia has] the best,
most reliable quality. Australia also has separate legal standards from
what most of the rest of the world uses for olive oil, which are
considerably stricter, the testing and the grading.
Another thing is to look at some other countries that people don’t
really associate so much with olive oil, but do a great job. I like a
lot of the new world olive oils: California, Chile, South Africa.”
As for the best place to buy olive oil, look for stores where taste
testing is allowed and encouraged, such as gourmet stores or specialty
retailers. “Once you taste good olive oil, you can never go back to the
bad stuff. It’s pretty clear when you taste it and smell it that it’s
fresh, that it’s fruity, that it’s a whole different ball game,” Olmsted
says.
How to Use Olive Oil
You’ll find plenty of inconsistencies when you begin reading information
about olive oil’s supposed health benefits, as well as the risks of
using it for cooking. Some advocate consuming olive oil only at room
temperature, drizzling it abundantly over salads and other foods. Others
argue there is insufficient evidence that cooking with olive oil
produces enough toxic byproducts to pose a health risk.
Case in point: An article published in Serious Eats9
examined a few studies and then concluded there’s no real danger from
cooking with olive oil. The author cited one study that found olive oil
to be more stable than various seed oils for frying at temperatures
between 320 and 374 degrees F.
Another study found olive oil produced fewer fumes (volatile aldehydes) than canola oil. Indeed, several studies10
have shown that virgin olive oil produces fewer oxidation products than
polyunsaturated oils when heated, due to its antioxidants.
I disagree with recommendations to cook with olive oil, and so do many
experts on fats and oils.
For example, I’ve previously interviewed Rudi Moerck, Ph.D., on the proper use of various cooking oils.
He warns olive oil should not be used in cooking, as its chemical
structure and high amount of unsaturated fats make it highly susceptible
to oxidative damage when heated. When oxidative damage happens inside
your body, it can trigger pain, arthritis, cancer and heart disease, and
can speed up the aging process, so you’ll want to minimize anything
that increases your body’s oxidative stress.
Moreover, even if your olive oil were to withstand the heating process
without oxidizing, its nutrients are destroyed by heat, so it’s not
providing you with any health benefit once you’ve cooked with it.
If you need to cook something and have only two options available — a
good olive oil and canola — it makes sense to reach for the olive. Just
realize that there are much better options than either of those.
Saturated fats such as butter, ghee and lard rendered from organically
raised grass-fed animals are far more resistant to the heat-induced
oxidation of cooking than even the best olive oil. Coconut oil is another excellent option.
How to Optimize Shelf-Life
Olive oil is extremely perishable even when used cold, thanks to its
chlorophyll content, which accelerates decomposition. If you're like
most people, you're probably leaving your bottle of olive oil right on
the counter, opening and closing it multiple times a week.
It’s important to remember that any time the oil is exposed to air
and/or light, it oxidizes, and the chlorophyll in extra virgin olive oil
accelerates the oxidation of the unsaturated fats. Clearly, consuming
spoiled oil (of any kind) will likely do more harm than good. To protect
your olive oil from rancidity, be sure to:
Keep it in a cool, dark place
Purchase smaller bottles to ensure freshness
Immediately replace the cap after each pour
To help protect extra virgin olive oil from oxidation, Moerck
suggests putting one drop of astaxanthin into the bottle. You can
purchase astaxanthin, which is an extremely potent antioxidant, in soft gel capsules. Just prick it with a pin and squeeze the capsule into the oil.
The beautiful thing about using astaxanthin instead of another
antioxidant such as vitamin E is that it is naturally red, whereas
vitamin E is colorless, so you can tell the oil still has astaxanthin in
it by its color. As the olive oil starts to pale in color, you know
it's time to throw it away.
You can also use one drop of lutein in your olive oil. Lutein imparts an
orange color and will also protect against oxidation. Again, once the
orange color fades, your oil is no longer protected against rancidity
and should be tossed. This method is yet another reason for buying
smaller bottles. If you have a large bottle, you may be tempted to keep
it even though it has begun to oxidize.
How to Identify Defective Olive Oil
How can you tell superior olive oil from an inferior one, or whether
or not your olive oil has gone bad? Here are four tell-tale signs to
look out for:
1. Rancidity. If it
smells like crayons or putty, tastes like rancid nuts and/or has a
greasy mouthfeel, your oil is rancid and should not be used.
2. Fusty flavor. ‘Fusty’
oil occurs when olives sit too long before they’re milled, leading to
fermentation in the absence of oxygen. Fusty flavors are incredibly
common in olive oil, so many simply think it’s normal. However, your
olive oil should not have a fermented smell to it, reminiscent of sweaty
socks or swampy vegetation.
To help you discern this particular flavor, look through a batch of
Kalamata olives and find one that is brown and mushy, rather than purple
or maroon-black and firm. The flavor of the brown, mushy one is the
flavor of fusty. 3. Moldy flavor. If your
olive oil tastes dusty or musty, it’s probably because it was made from
moldy olives, another occasional olive oil defect.
4. Wine or vinegar flavor. If
your olive oil tastes like it has undertones of wine and vinegar (or
even nail polish), it’s probably because the olives underwent
fermentation with oxygen, leading to this sharp, undesirable flavor.
Three years ago, the Dr. Oz Show featured a segment on the olive oil
“fridge test,” suggesting you can tell your extra virgin olive oil is
pure if it solidifies in the fridge. However, tests by the U.S. Davis
Olive Center prove this to be a highly unreliable way to detect olive
oil purity.
In fact, the Olive Center researchers refrigerated seven samples of
oil and found that noneof them congealed after 60 hours in the fridge.
While some had areas that had hardened, due to the varying levels of
saturated fats in the oil, none solidified completely. So, save yourself
the effort and avoid using this test.
Other Meaningless Label Terms
Besides “use by” and “sell by” dates, which have no bearing on quality
since such dates are unregulated, other terms found on olive oil labels
that are completely meaningless include “cold pressed” or “first press.”
They’re effective marketing strategies, evoking feelings of old world
dining and romance, but they’re obsolete and meaningless when it comes
to oil quality.
Olive Source has a page about obsolete and unregulated terms used by the olive oil industry.11
A prime example is their use of the term “cold pressed.” Cold pressed
refers to the time when oil was made using hydraulic presses, and there
was a distinction between the first (cold) press and the second (hot)
press, but that process is outdated.12
Today, most extra virgin olive oil is made in centrifuges. According
to Olive Source, “If anything, the term “first press” on a label should
be a warning signal, rather than a sign of quality.”
Terms that are actually meaningful are “early harvest” or “fall harvest”
(they’re interchangeable). Early harvest olives (harvested in the fall)
are green because they’re not fully ripe, have slightly less oil, and
are more bitter because they’re higher in polyphenols compared to olives
harvested in late winter, which are black. Early harvest olives are
more expensive because it takes more of them to make a bottle of oil,
but the oil has a longer shelf life and is more nutritious due to the
higher antioxidant content.
Tips and Guidelines for Finding the Real Deal
For more information about olive oil — how it’s made and what constitutes extra-virgin olive oil, please listen to the full interview with Olmsted, or read through the transcript,
as he goes into details about pressing, grading and testing. In his
book, “Fake Food, Real Food,” he also explains how to make your own.
I just happen to grow olive trees on my property, so I will probably
start making my own freshly-pressed olive oil. Below is a summary of
various tips gathered from experts about how to find the best quality
olive oil. You can also find more information on Mueller’s website,
Truth in Olive Oil.13
Harvest date: Insist on a harvest date, and try
to purchase oils only from the current year’s harvest. Look for “early
harvest” or “fall harvest.”
Storage and tasting: Find a seller who stores
the oil in clean, temperature-controlled stainless steel containers
topped with an inert gas such as nitrogen to keep oxygen at bay, and
bottles it as they sell it; ask to taste it before buying.
Color and flavor: According to Guy Campanile, an
olive oil producer, genuine, high quality extra virgin olive oil has
an almost luminescent green color.14
However, good oils come in all shades, from luminescent green to gold to pale straw, so color should not be a deal-breaker.
The oilshould smell and taste fresh and fruity, with
other descriptors including grassy, apple, green banana, herbaceous,
bitter, spicy (spiciness is indicative of healthy antioxidants).
Avoid flavors such as moldy, cooked, greasy, meaty, metallic, or resembling cardboard.
Bottles: If buying pre-bottled oil, favor
bottles or containers that protect against light; darkened glass,
stainless steel, or even clear glass enclosed in cardboard are good
options. Ideally, buy only what you can use up in six weeks.
Labeling terms: Ensure that your oil is labeled
"extra virgin," since other categories — "pure" or "light" oil, "olive
oil" and "olive pomace oil" — have undergone chemical processing.
Some terms commonly used on olive oil labels are meaningless, such as "first pressed" and "cold pressed."
Since most extra virgin olive oil is now made with centrifuges, it
isn't "pressed" at all, and true extra virgin oil comes exclusively
from the first processing of the olive paste.
Quality seals: Producer organizations such as
the California Olive Oil Council and the Australian Olive Association
require olive oil to meet quality standards that are stricter than the
minimal USDA standards.
Other seals may not offer such assurance. Of course, finding “USDA
certified organic” is a bonus, but not the only consideration.
Though not always a guarantee of quality, PDO (protected designation of
origin) and PGI (protected geographical indication) status should
inspire some confidence.
Storage and use: Keep your olive oil in a cool
and dark place, and replace the cap or cork immediately after each
pour. Never let it sit exposed to air.
Prolonging freshness: To slow oxidation, try adding one drop of astaxanthin to the bottle. Astaxanthin is red, so it will tint your olive oil.
As the olive oil starts to pale, you know it’s time to throw it away.
Alternatively, add one drop of lutein, which is orange in color. Vitamin E oil is another option,15 but since it’s colorless, it will not give you a visual indicator of freshness.
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