Olive oil: Is it really extra virgin?

Olive Oil 'Virginity' Questioned In California Lawsuit

A group of prominent California restauranteurs and chefs, including a contestant from Bravo's "Top Chef" reality competition, has sued olive oil distributors and retailers over a study that found many of the oils were not as pure as they were marketed.

The lawsuit cites a recent University of California, Davis, study that sampled a random selection and found that 69 percent of imported oils branded as extra-virgin did not meet international standards for the label. Ten percent of California oils sampled did not meet the standards.

Here is more on the UC-Davis study mentioned in the article.

But, good news for Costco shoppers:

Of all imported olive oil brands tested only one, Kirkland Organic, was found to pass the sensory tests with all three regional samples collected. As for the California brands just one, Bariani, exhibited sensory defects sufficient to fail extra virgin sensory standards.

Maybe the moral of the story is you get what you pay for?

This news seems to be bouncing from food forum to food forum. Some people have even gone as far to compare this olive oil scandal with their immaculate view of the IOOC (International Olive Oil Council). The only drawback is that while the IOOC has got a set group of standards for olive oil clarification they have still had many olive oil scandals in their past, the olive oil scandal in Italy was only a few years ago.

Earlier in the year the USDA adopted the COOC suggested guidelines, it goes into effect later in October. This will bring clear writing on what constitutes varying classes of olive oil. Although this still won't stop scandals and crooks from taking advantage of consumers.

I know that I've been frustrated for years about the quality of olive oil not being directly related to an increase of price. I wanted better olive oil, but quality was hit or miss. I would get some that were ok...but certainly not high special. When I bought olive oils with a fancier label, higher price or from a (so called) gourmet store it never meant that there would be an improvement in quality of the oil inside the bottle (tin).

This went on until I started sourcing olive oil directly from the producer, both from California and Europe. Since that time I've found the City Olive and couldn't be happier. They have some of the same products that I was buying directly from the producer and it is a little bit more expensive. But once you factor in shipping costs from California or Italy the price ends up cheaper. Now, I spend a bit more money on a single bottle than I did when I was searching for good olive oil. But now...every bottle I buy is exactly what I want and a good high quality olive oil. Every dollar I spend buys me exactly what I want, instead of wasting money searching for a good bottle.

Reading a couple of articles about the lawsuit it mentions consumers and restaurant owners that are listed in the suit. To me...I think this should be a wake up call for the consumer. STOP assuming that something is high quality because it's marketed as such. Just because something is sold in the grocery stores as organic, it doesn't mean it's a quality piece of produce. Likewise with the farmers markets! There are some decent products...but not all of them. I've been to a lot of the farmers markets around this area and quit going because I get better products growing my own, going to the farm, or visiting some of the ethnic grocery stores.

For the restaurants named in this suit...these people weren't appalled when they were buying the olive oil....and they weren't appalled when they were using it to cook, or serving it to their customers. But now that this scandal has been brought to light they've got a grievance? Maybe they should have been a little more aware of the ingredients they use. For the restaurants in this suit this should be a wake up call!

http://www.cooc.com/docs/USDAstandard.pdf Here's a pdf link to the new standards.

dan

I'm not surprised. Any time there is money to be made there are individuals that corrupt the system.
We use a lot of olive oil, all of it Extra Virgin, whatever that really means. We blind taste and settle on an oil for cooking and an oil for eating. I purchase by the case of 3l(present) and gal(formerly) cans at a discount. Currently our cooking oil is Colavita and for eating its a Spanish Brand called Romulo. My local seller has stopped handling this oil because of its price which was $50/gal at last purchase.
I don't have a good source for boutique oils at reasonable prices and really don't want to chase some small producers from the Midwest. That's about the best I can do.-Dick

So is every Bertolli bottle and the like, in regular area markets at a reasonable price, just utter crap compared to some other product I could buy easily and trust but pay more?

Sounds like cocaine in the 70's unless you knew the guy bringing in 10lbs of it at a time straight off a boat or plane in Florida.

Hook us up, those in the know!

kenji wrote:Hook us up, those in the know!

The Olybio extra virgin, first cold pressing oil that they are selling at Fresh Farms under their own label is some very fragrant, peppery stuff. They are selling it at a reasonable price. I bought a 750 ml bottle for under $10, but they also sell it in a larger tin. This stuff is surprisingly great oil sourced from Olympia in Greece. There are multiple tasting stations set up in the store, so give it a try.

kenji wrote:So is every Bertolli bottle and the like, in regular area markets at a reasonable price, just utter crap compared to some other product I could buy easily and trust but pay more?

It looks like the original study only tested three samples of each olive oil. Either most of the imported oil is pretty bad, or the researchers were "lucky". (More accurately, the California olive oil producers were lucky.) I wouldn't interpret these results to mean that "every" bottle of cheap, imported oil is does not live up to its label. I interpret the results as a caution that, like in most things, you get what you pay for. It also pays to do a little taste testing yourself. After all, if you mainly use olive oil for pan frying, some of the flaws in the cheap oil -- or the nuances of the better oils -- will be lost in the cooking process anyways. The old saying is that you should buy oil from a store that let's you taste before you buy. There are few places that actually let you do this, though, esp with cheap oils.

stevez wrote:

kenji wrote:Hook us up, those in the know!

The Olybio extra virgin, first cold pressing oil that they are selling at Fresh Farms under their own label is some very fragrant, peppery stuff. They are selling it at a reasonable price. I bought a 750 ml bottle for under $10, but they also sell it in a larger tin. This stuff is surprisingly great oil sourced from Olympia in Greece. There are multiple tasting stations set up in the store, so give it a try.

I bought a bottle of the Olybio in my last visit to Fresh Farms. We really like this olive oil.

kenji wrote:So is every Bertolli bottle and the like, in regular area markets at a reasonable price, just utter crap compared to some other product I could buy easily and trust but pay more?

Sounds like cocaine in the 70's unless you knew the guy bringing in 10lbs of it at a time straight off a boat or plane in Florida.

Hook us up, those in the know!

Hi ya Ken

No, Bertolli or everything else isn't utter crap. Olive oil is much like everything else in life. The differences are, in fact, relatively small. It's just how much those differences are worth to you. It's the same as anything else. There essentially isn't much difference between a boombox and a high end audio system, both play music after all. But if someone is looking for the finer nuances you may choose to pursue the quality system.

You can certainly use a low quality oil for both cooking and topping food. In fact, Bertolli is really a far step up from the lower grades oil. But if you're looking for the finer nuances of olive oil taste there is a world of olive oils out there to keep your fascination from harvest to harvest. In fact, for me, olive oils are very similar to wine or like jamon...or prosciutto. They all have their own character!

There are so many factors that go into a quality olive oil and give it it's distinct flavors/texture. Like wine or jamon...just because you once tasted a Spanish olive oil that you preferred over an Italian oil doesn't mean that this will hold true every time. Within any of the oil producing countries (or states) you have varying soil and climate conditions, which all effect the flavor. An oil from one part of Italy (or Spain...or etc) will certainly have different set of characteristics than another from the north.

You also have great varying degrees of flavors due to different olive being used. Arbequina and picual oils have very different traits. then you can also get into blended oils as well. So you couple region, climate and soil with the type of olive crop and then add the charactoristics added from the differences in weather/crop from one year to another.

I've had the opportunity to try a couple of oils from the same Producer in Spain. Each were from the same (current) year and same region but one was an arbequina and the other was a picual oil. I tasted the differences between the two oils and was hooked on the differences. I have since bought the same two olive oils and again marveled at the slight nuances from harvest to harvest as well as the other factors mentioned before.

I also enjoy fresh harvested olive oils, but I understand that some of these may be a bit too edgy for some (unexpecting) customers. I say unexpecting because some fresh harvested olive oils can have a strong, edgy flavor and throatfeel...let alone mouthfeel. But again...while this may be true with some fresh harvested olive oils others will be/are smoother and more gentle. Throughout the year I'll currently buy several bottles from different regions in Spain, Italy, Greece, California and France.

Rather than come up with my favorite olive oil (or fresh harvested olive oil) I would instead say that I enjoy the flavor differences from each. I could not see just using one single olive oil. (huh...it's actually alot like differing tastes in butter. But that's a different subject )


Below are links to the two sources I used


CasaDeCase Olio Nuovo


TerraSavia California Olio Nuovo

Another great asset in the Chicago area is The City Olive; http://www.cityolive.com/.


Hey, this is just how I see it. Everyone need to find out if the difference are worth their own pursuit.

dan

So many "extra virgin" imported olive oils, especially those "packed or bottled in Italy" are in fact a blend of oils of various origins, Turkey, Morocco, Tunisia, Bulgaria, countries from the forme Yougoslavia, etc. In fact good quality extra-virgin olive oils coming from a country of the European Union should mention the geographical origins of the oils, the date of harvesting or at least a "best if used by....and a date, usually less than 2 yeras from harvest time. And a percentage of acidity, that should be less than 0,008%.
In fact the key is the freshness of the oil.
I use a very decent Greek olive oil, made from 100% Kalamata olives, that I buy at Trader Joe’s for 8.99 dollars for a full liter. I tried other cheap extra-virgin olive oils from Spain and Italy, like the ones you find at Whole Foods, but none, except maybe the Spanish Zoe, was as flavorful and fresh as my Greek oil, (bottled under the trade name of Martini's), which by the way is always sold in a slightly dark greenish glass bottle, and has an expiration date clearly engraved in the glass at the top of the bottle. It is very important to buy an olive oil that is very young, no more than a year or 15 months after harvest time. As a matter of fact the optimum taste of an extra-virgin oil lasts only a few months. That is why you should never buy an olive oil that does not have a date either of production, or of limit of consumption.

I second or third the recommendations made here about the Fresh Farms "Olybio" brand. It's very good with a slightly peppery kick and a nice green color. The 500 ml bottle shown here is less than $8. Delish!

Certainly must try this Olybio if I can get to where it's sold.
City Olive certainly seems to have a lot of integrity, but I really can't afford their stuff in the volume that I use olive oil. I do like to get up there for a 750ml of something nice just for dressing fresh summer salads or grilled meat and fish.
As Alain40 points out, labelling laws are not our friend with "product of" and "packed in" meaning that the contents can be almost anything from anywhere. In addition, there's the handling, which one can never be sure of. If the wholesaler or retailer have a 120-degree storeroom, it's going to get cooked. If the pretty bottles are all stacked beautifully in the store window with the sun streaming in, ditto. Then there's the harvest date, which is pretty rare to find, but which is, at least, on the more expensive Kirkland bottling.
I was looking at Treasure Island's collection just a couple of weeks ago and there were several with sufficiently purple prose on their labels to pique my interest, but then I saw that they did have harvest dates on them: 2008. I just ain't paying top dollar for 2 year old oil.
FYI, L'Appetito carries a line of regional oils which all have harvest dates. I've only tried one or two and it's been too long to comment.
I've tried a handful of Trader Joe's bottlings, both Italian and Spanish, and none seemed to stand out for me. I may well not have hit on the one mentioned upthread.
Colavita seems to have decent, consistant flavor, though I stick to Kirkland as much as I can. I've also tried a handful of greek Kalamata oils sold at Middle East bakery that had some real aroma and flavor.

Not completely on topic, but I recently had this experience and was surprised and perplexed by it: Hyde Park Produce had a display of oil by the door. $5.99 for a 750ml, or maybe even a liter. I was skeptical but picked up a bottle just to see what the label might divulge. On the front it said clearly "Extra Virgin Olive Oil"---the brand name was something generic-sounding like Campagnola. I was looking for the tell-tale fudge terms on the back ("packed in" etc.), and what I found was even worse. Under ingredients it listed: "vegetable oil, extra virgin olive oil".
Is't possible! Can you call something "Extra virgin" on the front, if that's what you have on the back?
I wouldn't have thought so.
Any experts.

Finally, totally off evoo, but in the labelling vein: I just noticed that my jar of Claussen dill pickles lists "less than 2% high fructose corn syrup." I mean really??? WTF???? In dill pickles????