5 things you should know when buying Extra Virgin Olive Oil
When you are comparing different types of Olive Oil and you have doubts on which one to choose, follow the next tips:
- Always choose Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO): Regardless of the quality and type of olive fruit when you buy an Extra Virgin Olive Oil you can rest assure this amongst the best ones. Additionally, if the EVOO is organic means that is free of pesticides, and any other chemical elements.
If the bottle that you have picked has a label with “Olive Oil” only, probably you will have refined oil in your hands, if you are looking for quality, please go away from this oil!!
What “refined oil” implies? The oil has been produced under chemical and physical processes to remove all non-desirable compounds. We will talk about this in detail in another post; keep an eye on the blog!
- Read the labels: In the labels you can find packing date, preferred consumption date and information about the origin of the olives and its trazability.
- Avoid plastic packaged olive oil and transparent glass bottles: Olive Oil packaged in those is more prompt to loose properties quicker if it is shown in a shelf with direct sunlight. As an option, you should try to look for aluminium or dark glass bottles OR buy Extra Virgin Olive Oil online; reason is that normally this is in dark warehouses ready to be shipped, and far from sunlight.
- Pick a brand: Do not pick supermarkets' private or own brands, but better pick a local producer. The reason is that they have more control about variety of olive fruits that they use to produce the Extra Virgin Olive Oil. On the other hand, the lowest quality olive fruits are normally used for private or own brands, as normally these brands do not inform about origin and quality of the fruits.
- The youngest the olive fruit is, the best quality the EVOO will have: the fresher the Extra Virgin Olive Oil is, the best. Remember if the oil is packaged long time ago it can have lost its properties. It is said that a high quality Orgainc EVOO starts to lose its properties in taste, intensity in taste or color after a year of packaging, but not organolectic properties like oleic acid or polyphenols.