Not So Extra Virgin Olive Oil

[MiraD]

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http://blogs.sfweekly.com/foodie/2010/07/rachael_ray_olive_oil_among_th.php&h=11363

​If you too fight insomnia with cough syrup and late-night episodes of Rachael Ray's cooking shows, you know the perky, much-maligned crafter of 30-minute meals uses a cute acronym for the fruity green sap she drizzles over her convenience-oriented concoctions. She calls it EVOO, short of course for extra-virgin olive oil, the lifeblood of the Mediterranean. If a study done by the U.C. Davis Olive Center at the university's Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science is to be believed, Ray might not only be annoying ― she might also be inaccurate.

As reported by NPR earlier this week, more than two-thirds of random tested samples of imported, so-called EVOO may have been adulterated, diluted, or otherwise degraded below the standards for extra-virginity. "It's like we have our own CSI: Olive Oil lab here," the lab's forensics manager, Charles Shoemaker, told NPR. He broke down a few of his factors: For starters, spectroscopic studies to reveal oxidation and subsequent rancidity and fatty acid testing to see if any soybean or sunflower has corrupted the olive.

While the North American Olive Oil Association ― which represents importers ― wasn't stoked on the findings, the study's assertion does corroborate what NPR's story calls "mounting concern over truth-in-olive-oil-labeling." Beginning in October, "olive oil from every olive oil-producing country, including America, will be subject to random sampling" off retailers' shelves.

A few of the tainted and popular: Pompeian, Bertolli, Colavita, Filippo Berio, and ― yes ― Rachael Ray's very own brand.

[KellyT]

Very interesting!

Thank you for giving me one more reason to continue paying a small fortune for my very local EVOO!

[myqute]

The extra virgin olive oil is only meant to be used as a salad dressing I think?  Not for cooking.

[blujay]

I just came back from Peru with some very unique food products, among them a true EVOO from the Bojita olives (Peruvian Purple) that the Spaniards planted in the 1500's, really amazing stuff. It has a vibrant green color, but the taste is very intense! You can only use a little bit for a whole dish, and it makes everything taste like fresh olives! No other olive oil can compare!

Even other varieties of olive oils are very harsh and strong tasting when fresh pressed, it will make you gag. All olive oils are filtered and refined and deodorized to some extent, to cut out the strong flavors and mask the rancidity. This is also why they dilute the EVOO with other filler oils, on top of being much cheaper.

I'm going against the flow of the common understanding of the health properties of EVOO. When you weight the benefits of this food over the drawbacks...you'll see that olive oil isn't a health improving food...I combine this effect along with all other oils that are striped from their whole food form, thats any liquid oil (coconut and butter are the exception). The delicate oils that keep them liquid at room temperature turn rancid and oxidize very easily, so by the time you get them and then cook with them at all, they oxidize even further, contributing to a host of disease, directly linked to heart disease, cancer and diabetes (yes the top three killers!). So any refined oils are on my nutritional hit list, again they are not health inducing! Do your research (real medical studies, not funded by oil/food companies) and search this forum for more on olive oil and other refined oils...

Sorry for the lack of reports, there is ample evidence out there...but here is a good primer..
http://www.thevegetariansite.com/health_oliveoil.htm

Stay healthy with whole food fats!

[evollen41097]

I cannot personally concede that olive oil is 'not healthy' - there is so much historical data to prove otherwise, including long-term health studies on people who live in mediterranean countries and subsist largely on olive oil.
I do believe that oil starts oxidizing the moment it is processed, even cold-pressed.  that's true of everything; vegetables start losing nutrients the moment you pluck them out of the soil and separate them from their roots but we are not always in a position to eat something fresh from the source and oil is one of the most prescient examples of that (most of us don't press our own oils).  so, the key is BUY OLIVE OIL AS LOCAL AS POSSIBLE! this is easier for some of us than others (northern californianers, for instance).  Avoid the imported european or south american oils whenever possible (since organic standards may differ in those countries as well).  For people in the Bay area/wine country, I highly recommend MacEvoy Ranch or Bariani (the latter is not C.C.O.F. yet but i called them to inquire and they are basically totally organic with certification pending).

[MiraD]

BluJay,  My husband sometimes goes on trips to Lima.  Is there a name brand for this Bojita olive oil?  We'd love to try it.