The Adulteration of Italian Olive Oil

Post by jseliger » Mon, Jan 27, 2014, 4:37 AM UTC

busterarm wrote: post #7

It's good for people to be aware of this but there's so much either ignored or misrepresented as to make this almost harmful. Fake olive oil peddlers aren't hurting themselves by peddling fake oil as the scam is as old as the olive oil industry itself. It's likely never going to go away and has been a mainstay of various criminal organizations (Sicilian mafia, etc) for longer than pretty much all of us have been aliv…

Post by rosser » Mon, Jan 27, 2014, 4:39 AM UTC

crazygringo wrote: post #39

hsitz wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

" The flavor can't be counterfeited at all, so it doesn't really matter what's on the label . . . . You might have 5 different olive oils in your cupboard depending on what you're using them for, but you didn't buy any of them based on their label!" Huh? What world are you living in? I mean, maybe you have five different olive oils in your cupboard and maybe their labels had nothing to do with the ones you chose. But…

I don't think you get it -- that's my point. If your "average purchaser in the US" can't tell the difference, then it won't matter to them anyways, right? And if they can tell the difference, then they're already buying by flavor. EVOO isn't Coca-Cola. There's no standard flavor. It's the same as complaining about counterfeit wine -- if it tastes good for the price, does it ultimately matter if it's "counterfeit" or…

Post by magicalist » Mon, Jan 27, 2014, 4:40 AM UTC

serge2k wrote: post #18

Cool slideshow, nice example of a modern webpage. But is this really what passes for journalism at the NYT now?

Post by rosser » Mon, Jan 27, 2014, 4:42 AM UTC

davyjones wrote: post #42

rosser wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

as far as I can tell, this really doesn't make any difference in the end Unfortunately, that's not the case. When olive oil is adulterated with oils that have lower smoke points, and that adulterated oil is then used under heat, for cooking, the adulterant oils can break down and yield toxic compounds (e.g., aldehydes and hydroperoxids). [1] EDIT: Also, as noted by a sibling comment, the Ω3:Ω6 ratios for some of the…

To quote an excerpt from that link: " Virgin olive oil was, amongst all the oils studied, that which took longer to produce this type of compounds and produced a lower concentration of them." I am going to assume (and hope) that that was an off-the-shelf sample, which includes the adulteration you are talking about. Unfortunately, there no further information available.

Post by crazygringo » Mon, Jan 27, 2014, 4:44 AM UTC

busterarm wrote: post #37

crazygringo wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

EVOO already has a low smoke point as far as oils are concerned, processed soy/canola/corn/etc. oil all have significantly higher smoke points. I can't imagine a scenario where a manufacturer would be adulterating EVOO with another oil that has a lower smoke point -- there just aren't any that would be make economic sense, as far as I know.

sunflower and safflower oils, the two most commonly substituted oils for olive oil (as far as counterfeiting goes), have a similar or _much lower_ smoke point than olive oil in an unrefined state. 225F, in fact. That's almost 100 degrees lower than olive oil.