Fake Olive Oil: What You Need To Know

Written by StyleCraze  • 

Olive oil has often been regarded as a miracle oil. A great salad dressing, a healthy alternative to vegetable cooking oil, a skin moisturizer, and a hair conditioner – there’s so much you can do using a simple bottle of olive oil. With so much versatility, it’s no wonder this super oil is the preferred choice of dietitians, health buffs, and even beauty addicts.
The rather hefty price tag has done little to deter the new generation of fitness enthusiasts, who swear that a little extra money is a small price to pay for an investment in good health.
Unfortunately, fake or adulterated olive oil is often more easily available than the genuine counterpart. Read on to know if the olive oil you are using is the real thing.

Test It

So you’ve bought your bottle of olive oil but are still unsure if you’ve been conned. While there are no foolproof ways to tell if your oil is 100% authentic, some simple at-home tests can give you a good indication.

1. Taste Test

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Like fine wine, good quality olive oil is said to have a distinct aroma and taste. According to experts, genuine olive oil starts with a mildly grassy aroma and finishes with spicy, tingly bite at the back of the tongue.
But if you’re not a seasoned expert, it could be hard to tell the difference between a local and premium brand. Luckily, there are other ways you can test your olive oil.

2. Fridge Test

Extra virgin olive oil is made from mostly monounsaturated fats that usually solidify when cold. Hence, putting a bottle of olive oil in the fridge would cause the oil to become a cloudy mass of solidified fats.
This test works pretty well. However in recent times, most olive oil producers have chosen to chill and filter out the ‘wax’ in olive oil to help it last longer on shelves during winter.
We still think this is a pretty good indication of whether your oil is genuine, although we wouldn’t blindly follow the result.

Choose With Caution

While there is no hard and fast way to guarantee that your oil is 100% authentic, keep these in mind while shopping to ensure you don’t miss out on the health benefits of real olive oil.

1. Avoid Mass-Produced Oil

If you’re fortunate enough to live in an area where olive farmers make their own oil, buy it directly from them. Sure, the price may be higher, but you’re guaranteed more pure oil than factory-produced olive oil.

2. The Bottle Does Matter

It may be tempting to take advantage of those “Buy One, Get One Free” offers, but be warned that storing olive oil for long periods of time can affect its quality. The best bet is to pick up bottles from this year’s harvest. You can do this by checking the manufacturing date or the expiry date, which should be no longer than two years from the current date. Also, buy small quantities that can be used quickly.

3. Check The Label

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We’ll let you in on a secret – labels such as “pure”, “light”, “olive pomace” are just fancy words cooked up by seasoned marketing experts. The only olive oil you should be buying is the one labeled “extra virgin”. All the other categories have undergone chemical refinement, which may have affected their taste and authenticity.
Almost all good things in life – those Louis Vuitton purses, the iPhone, and now, olive oil – have been adulterated. And while we take a bow for the goodness of olive oil, keep the above points in mind to ensure you don’t fall prey to fake olive oil.

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