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I’ve come to peace with not being sure whether the olive oil I use for cooking is really what they say it is on the bottle. But I also buy really real oil from

I’ve come to peace with not being sure whether the olive oil I use for cooking is really what they say it is on the bottle. But I also buy really real oil from a nice local supplier (F. Oliver’s) to use on salads and bread. It’s pretty obvious the difference. The latter is so good. It costs about double the supermarket stuff, but it’s for a different purpose and I use it more sparingly. I admit it would be nice if all olive oil tasted this good…but it’s something I gave up obsessing about a couple years ago.

collaborative 3y ago
I think supermarket oil is fine. The fake oil is mostly sold in discount shops like tk maxx and home bargains
- School-Cotton 3y ago
  How do you know?
  - collaborative 3y ago
    I mean, this might down vote me even further. But I am from Spain. I can taste it. I use olive oil on pretty much everything. I never ever use any oil other than extra virgin olive oil. Even for frying In fact, I can tell you that the 5 * oil sold in luxury bottles abroad is no better than the plain extra virgin. And that is where the fraud mostly exists (besides mixed oil in tk maxx). I have never been able to buy luxury oil outside of Spain. All the luxury bottles abroad contain normal oil. But I don't really care for luxury oil anyway. Normal extra virgin fulfills all my health and taste requirements At the end of the day, if this misunderstood awareness of "fake oil" benefits my fellow countrymen and helps them develop supply chains of verified, expensive higher grade oils (which are a waste of money in my view but nevermind) then I guess these campaigns are very good. People in Spain extremely rarely will use anything other than plain extra virgin. It's like eating caviar. And farmers really struggle to get a fair price, especially when selling bulk to foreign buyers
- colechristensen 3y ago
  No, there are widespread problems with olive oil fraud.
- devbent 3y ago
  Plenty of studies have been done by purchasing a large # of bottles from supermarkets and they've all shown half or more of olive oils are either fake or rancid.
artursapek 3y ago
olive oil isn't even particularly great for cooking because of its low smoke point. avocado oil or beef/duck tallow are a good choice.
- binarymax 3y ago
  Of course, I have a variety of oils depending on what I’m cooking. I use olive oil for low and slow stuff like sauces.
- mp05 3y ago
  Though not quite as high as avocado or safflower, I presume you're aware that refined olive oils can have pretty high smoke points. But it surprises me how often I'll be at a friend's home and they grease up their frying pan with EVOO.
  - someotherperson 3y ago
    I exclusively use EVOO. Never had a problem, never had a complaint. But then again I don't exactly deep fry food so maybe that's where the issue is.
    - oven9342 3y ago
      yeah, for deep frying certain frozen food products, it might be better to reach temperatures above 170 °C, so the oil doesn't get too cold as you add the frozen food.
  - mk89 3y ago
    There can be two main reasons: 1. Their EVOO can reach temps ~200°C 2. They use medium temperatures on the frying pan (so they keep it at 180-200°C, or lower). This is especially true when you use pans with anti-stick coating, which literally break at high temperatures (it's even written in the instructions to avoid using the highest temperatures).
    - swores 3y ago
hanniabu 3y ago
Not everybody has the luxury of "coming to peace" with it. I have an extremely strict diet due to food insensitivies and olive oil is the only way I can get fat in my diet. Bad olive oil is cut with other oils and literally makes me sick. The real stuff is extremely hard to find and now I stock up with a year's worth because the last place I sourced it from went out of business and took q while to find another location.
- binarymax 3y ago
  Sorry to hear that. Not sure where you’re located but check out the supplier I mentioned, it’s definitely pure. https://folivers.com/ https://folivers.com/
  - hanniabu 3y ago
    Thanks, good to have for emergencies although it looks like they're all flavors and don't have it plain.
    - binarymax 3y ago
      They certainly do! In the ‘single varietal’ section: https://folivers.com/product-category/single-varietal-evoo/ https://folivers.com/product-category/single-varietal-evoo/ I usually get the Hojiblanca but seems that variety is unavailable online. Also to be clear, I have no affiliation.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
- dheera 3y ago
  > The real stuff is extremely hard to find I buy stuff like this https://barianioliveoil.com/ https://barianioliveoil.com/ and this https://shop.sekahills.com/Products/Olive-Oil https://shop.sekahills.com/Products/Olive-Oil These are both California olive oils, available at my local Whole Foods, and indicate clearly the harvest date. They taste far better than the mass produced brands. Are they not the real thing? Please enlighten me. If price isn't an issue which olive oil should I get if I like bold flavor?
Reason077 3y ago
I have a friend who moved to Portugal and acquired ~15 olive trees with the farmhouse he purchased. (And also oranges, lemons, pomegranates, plums, and grape vines). All for less than the price of a small flat in London. It took him and his girlfriend a few days of work, but they harvested all the olives by hand (using rakes and nets), took them to a local olive mill and for around €50 (flat fee for any amount of olives up to a certain batch size) got back a 50-litre barrel filled with some of the most delicious extra virgin olive oil I've ever tasted. At least a year's supply for them. Fast fibre internet there too despite being in the countryside. I don't think he's coming back!
- pteraspidomorph 3y ago
  The internet is good when it works. Mine has been out for a week. Motherf-ing Altice...
  - dadoum 3y ago
    Oh so Altice also exists there? SFR in France is now legendary for all of its problems. My parents paid for a fiber subscription for years before understanding that it wasn't using the fiber since it wasn't working, and when they did know, SFR sent us technicians to try to fix the problem. Each one of them came, and got to the same conclusion: "Oh, it doesn't work, I (the technician) should call someone in SFR and come back next week", and then proceeded to not come back the next week. 10 times. 10 technicians came and told me the same thing; even one of them told me that "Just switch to another provider it's not probably going to be resolved"
    - ThePowerOfFuet 3y ago
      SFR was their first mistake, alas.
- re 3y ago
  > a 50 litre barrel ... At least a year's supply for them That's an unfathomable amount of olive oil to me! To finish off the barrel within a year between the two of them, they'd each have to be consuming 68 mL (4.6 tablespoons) of olive oil daily, providing 62 grams of fat.
kurthr 3y ago
Yeah, there's olive oil for sprinkling on a salad or sauces where you're going to smell and taste it, and then there's cooking oil. I'd happily spend a fair bit on a small quantity of the former (Extra Virgin) from a local producer since it's going to go rancid quickly anyway, and get non-EVOO for cooking. I still use light olive oil since it's mono-unsaturated and a bit more healthy, but it also just lasts longer in a liter+ jug. I wouldn't want to have the bottle open for more than a few months, you can smell the oxidation. It doesn't seem like the counterfeiting is as bad for the moderate cost and processed version either. That said, last I was at WholePaycheck they ONLY had EVOO and a huge shelf of it, too. Gotta go to the regular store for the light stuff.
- Spooky23 3y ago
  A nice way to achieve that is to get cheap “salad oil”, which is a blend of olive oil and some other oil. GEM is a common brand where I live. Usually it’s in a bigger container. Chances are, the light olive oil is the same thing, but 3x more.
  - kurthr 3y ago
    Are you saying that most light olive oil isn't olive oil? I guess it's possible, but there's profit without doing that too. All the research I've heard (eg 80% fake) is for EVOO. I guess it could be like the subway fake tunafish scandal (debunked?)*. You can get a lot more oil out of olives after the first press, but you don't get the flavor or smell, and it's certainly a lot cheaper to make Seems like there's more money in suing a reputable producer for an allergic reaction than cutting $5-10/liter extra light olive oil with $3-5/liter corn/soy/peanut/canola. That's gonna kill somebody! * https://news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/judge-in-subway-case-admonishes-embarrassed-fake-tuna-lawyer https://news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/judge-in-subway-cas...
    - Spooky23 3y ago
      It’s a commodity that has been counterfeited for centuries.
rootusrootus 3y ago
I buy only California olive oil, no imports, because the regulation is a lot stronger. Costs more, but at least I know I'm getting the real thing.

collaborative 3y ago

I think supermarket oil is fine. The fake oil is mostly sold in discount shops like tk maxx and home bargains

School-Cotton 3y ago
How do you know?
- collaborative 3y ago
  I mean, this might down vote me even further. But I am from Spain. I can taste it. I use olive oil on pretty much everything. I never ever use any oil other than extra virgin olive oil. Even for frying In fact, I can tell you that the 5 * oil sold in luxury bottles abroad is no better than the plain extra virgin. And that is where the fraud mostly exists (besides mixed oil in tk maxx). I have never been able to buy luxury oil outside of Spain. All the luxury bottles abroad contain normal oil. But I don't really care for luxury oil anyway. Normal extra virgin fulfills all my health and taste requirements At the end of the day, if this misunderstood awareness of "fake oil" benefits my fellow countrymen and helps them develop supply chains of verified, expensive higher grade oils (which are a waste of money in my view but nevermind) then I guess these campaigns are very good. People in Spain extremely rarely will use anything other than plain extra virgin. It's like eating caviar. And farmers really struggle to get a fair price, especially when selling bulk to foreign buyers
colechristensen 3y ago
No, there are widespread problems with olive oil fraud.
devbent 3y ago
Plenty of studies have been done by purchasing a large # of bottles from supermarkets and they've all shown half or more of olive oils are either fake or rancid.

artursapek 3y ago

olive oil isn't even particularly great for cooking because of its low smoke point. avocado oil or beef/duck tallow are a good choice.

binarymax 3y ago
Of course, I have a variety of oils depending on what I’m cooking. I use olive oil for low and slow stuff like sauces.
mp05 3y ago
Though not quite as high as avocado or safflower, I presume you're aware that refined olive oils can have pretty high smoke points. But it surprises me how often I'll be at a friend's home and they grease up their frying pan with EVOO.
- someotherperson 3y ago
  I exclusively use EVOO. Never had a problem, never had a complaint. But then again I don't exactly deep fry food so maybe that's where the issue is.
  - oven9342 3y ago
    yeah, for deep frying certain frozen food products, it might be better to reach temperatures above 170 °C, so the oil doesn't get too cold as you add the frozen food.
- mk89 3y ago
  There can be two main reasons: 1. Their EVOO can reach temps ~200°C 2. They use medium temperatures on the frying pan (so they keep it at 180-200°C, or lower). This is especially true when you use pans with anti-stick coating, which literally break at high temperatures (it's even written in the instructions to avoid using the highest temperatures).
  - swores 3y ago

hanniabu 3y ago

Not everybody has the luxury of "coming to peace" with it. I have an extremely strict diet due to food insensitivies and olive oil is the only way I can get fat in my diet. Bad olive oil is cut with other oils and literally makes me sick. The real stuff is extremely hard to find and now I stock up with a year's worth because the last place I sourced it from went out of business and took q while to find another location.

binarymax 3y ago
Sorry to hear that. Not sure where you’re located but check out the supplier I mentioned, it’s definitely pure. https://folivers.com/ https://folivers.com/
- hanniabu 3y ago
  Thanks, good to have for emergencies although it looks like they're all flavors and don't have it plain.
  - binarymax 3y ago
    They certainly do! In the ‘single varietal’ section: https://folivers.com/product-category/single-varietal-evoo/ https://folivers.com/product-category/single-varietal-evoo/ I usually get the Hojiblanca but seems that variety is unavailable online. Also to be clear, I have no affiliation.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
dheera 3y ago
> The real stuff is extremely hard to find I buy stuff like this https://barianioliveoil.com/ https://barianioliveoil.com/ and this https://shop.sekahills.com/Products/Olive-Oil https://shop.sekahills.com/Products/Olive-Oil These are both California olive oils, available at my local Whole Foods, and indicate clearly the harvest date. They taste far better than the mass produced brands. Are they not the real thing? Please enlighten me. If price isn't an issue which olive oil should I get if I like bold flavor?

Reason077 3y ago

I have a friend who moved to Portugal and acquired ~15 olive trees with the farmhouse he purchased. (And also oranges, lemons, pomegranates, plums, and grape vines). All for less than the price of a small flat in London. It took him and his girlfriend a few days of work, but they harvested all the olives by hand (using rakes and nets), took them to a local olive mill and for around €50 (flat fee for any amount of olives up to a certain batch size) got back a 50-litre barrel filled with some of the most delicious extra virgin olive oil I've ever tasted. At least a year's supply for them. Fast fibre internet there too despite being in the countryside. I don't think he's coming back!

pteraspidomorph 3y ago
The internet is good when it works. Mine has been out for a week. Motherf-ing Altice...
- dadoum 3y ago
  Oh so Altice also exists there? SFR in France is now legendary for all of its problems. My parents paid for a fiber subscription for years before understanding that it wasn't using the fiber since it wasn't working, and when they did know, SFR sent us technicians to try to fix the problem. Each one of them came, and got to the same conclusion: "Oh, it doesn't work, I (the technician) should call someone in SFR and come back next week", and then proceeded to not come back the next week. 10 times. 10 technicians came and told me the same thing; even one of them told me that "Just switch to another provider it's not probably going to be resolved"
  - ThePowerOfFuet 3y ago
    SFR was their first mistake, alas.
re 3y ago
> a 50 litre barrel ... At least a year's supply for them That's an unfathomable amount of olive oil to me! To finish off the barrel within a year between the two of them, they'd each have to be consuming 68 mL (4.6 tablespoons) of olive oil daily, providing 62 grams of fat.

kurthr 3y ago

Yeah, there's olive oil for sprinkling on a salad or sauces where you're going to smell and taste it, and then there's cooking oil. I'd happily spend a fair bit on a small quantity of the former (Extra Virgin) from a local producer since it's going to go rancid quickly anyway, and get non-EVOO for cooking. I still use light olive oil since it's mono-unsaturated and a bit more healthy, but it also just lasts longer in a liter+ jug. I wouldn't want to have the bottle open for more than a few months, you can smell the oxidation. It doesn't seem like the counterfeiting is as bad for the moderate cost and processed version either. That said, last I was at WholePaycheck they ONLY had EVOO and a huge shelf of it, too. Gotta go to the regular store for the light stuff.

Spooky23 3y ago
A nice way to achieve that is to get cheap “salad oil”, which is a blend of olive oil and some other oil. GEM is a common brand where I live. Usually it’s in a bigger container. Chances are, the light olive oil is the same thing, but 3x more.
- kurthr 3y ago
  Are you saying that most light olive oil isn't olive oil? I guess it's possible, but there's profit without doing that too. All the research I've heard (eg 80% fake) is for EVOO. I guess it could be like the subway fake tunafish scandal (debunked?)*. You can get a lot more oil out of olives after the first press, but you don't get the flavor or smell, and it's certainly a lot cheaper to make Seems like there's more money in suing a reputable producer for an allergic reaction than cutting $5-10/liter extra light olive oil with $3-5/liter corn/soy/peanut/canola. That's gonna kill somebody! * https://news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/judge-in-subway-case-admonishes-embarrassed-fake-tuna-lawyer https://news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/judge-in-subway-cas...
  - Spooky23 3y ago
    It’s a commodity that has been counterfeited for centuries.

rootusrootus 3y ago

I buy only California olive oil, no imports, because the regulation is a lot stronger. Costs more, but at least I know I'm getting the real thing.