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And your olive oil might not be olive oil. Our daughter is allergic to sunflower oil which is commonly used to adulterate the olive oil. Chips supposedly mad

And your olive oil might not be olive oil. Our daughter is allergic to sunflower oil which is commonly used to adulterate the olive oil. Chips supposedly made with olive oil will sometimes give her a rash. For bottled olive oil we try to buy local California olive oil...,

tomatotomato37 7y ago
It's not just might, I think something crazy like 80% of olive oil is adulterated. For whatever reason the olive oil industry has become the target of choice for Mediterranean crime syndicates.
- r6754dw 7y ago
  Try buying Greek if you can find that. At least the Greek brands of extra virgin olive oil I've bought in Northern Europe look and taste just like the locally product I've enjoyed in Crete. Italian and non-EU brands on the other hand taste totally different - and I don't think it's because of geography.
  - LargoLasskhyfv 7y ago
    The thing with these suggestions is, they are all anecdotical from a single point in time and (market) space. I remember having read here somewhere, some time ago that maroccan or tunesian olive oil would be very good also, presumably because it isn't under the pressure of massive demand, so less incentive to fraud around it. Since decades this is a topic in consumer testing magazines and public television, and i can't remember anytime they didn't find at least one third fradulent. There are documentations out there, where they travel to Italy, speak with the local farmers, dealers, police and local government to get to root of this problem, and all involved parties (at least on the record) see it as a large problem too. Yet it is persistent.
jedberg 7y ago
From what I read before Costco does independent testing and their olive oil is unadulterated. Might be something to look into if you have Costco nearby.
- pmoriarty 7y ago
  "Costco does independent testing and their olive oil is unadulterated" One of the interesting things I learned from the honey article was that fraudsters have figured out how to work their way around tests, at least for honey. I wouldn't be surprised if they could do the same for olive oil and other food products. It seems like a cat and mouse game. Something not mentioned in the article is that testing labs themselves need to be tested, certified, and audited. There have been some scandals in forensic labs where techs have repeatedly falsified test results for decades. This is probably especially a problem when organized crime is involved. If you are at all interested in food safety, I highly recommend "The Poison Squad", about the foundation of the FDA.[1][2] [1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euBoKIm1v6Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euBoKIm1v6Q [2] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0rKnxm3X7M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0rKnxm3X7M
  - zamadatix 7y ago
    If they remove enough to detect it was adulterated then would it trigger the allergic reaction though?
    - pmoriarty 7y ago
      Removal isn't the only thing that happens. Sometimes they add in stuff like pollen. Also, just because they fool the particular testing tools that labs use doesn't mean you as a consumer won't have an adverse reaction to whatever it was they put in to the honey. The problem with adulteration isn't exclusively limited to harmful health effects either. Even if your health would not be adversely affected by the adulterants, you might still want to be certain you're getting is genuine. Let's say you bought corn syrup while under the impression that it was honey. It might not harm your health any more than any other corn syrup would, but you've still been defrauded, and what you got might not have the same health benefits that honey has (assuming honey has such benefits). Your purchasing decisions could have an ecological impact too. Effectively subsidizing the growing of corn by mistakenly buying corn syrup will have different ecological consequences than subsidizing the establishment of more bee colonies by buying genuine honey. That's not to mention the ethical issues of being conned in to giving money to fraudsters versus giving it to honest business people.
raducu 7y ago
The romans had an intricate system that prevented oil fraud, they could track and amphora back to the farm it originated in, and every step along the way. We should be able to do the same with modern technology and severely penalize individuals who commit fraud.
- TeMPOraL 7y ago
  We have even better systems in place than the Romans did. They're just not used unless there's a health emergency (e.g. E. coli in the food).
amlozano 7y ago
I used to trust the California Olive Ranch brand for olive oil, but lately noticed they started labeling their some of their bottles as imported and accidentally bought some. It tastes fine, but if I recall correctly the problems with olive oil usually come from imports where laws and regulation rules change from country to country. Luckily I live close to a real olive mill, but there really is no way to know. Plus you have people arguing the vast majority of olive oil sold in the USA is "authentic" for some measure of authentic, which is really hard to discern: https://www.aboutoliveoil.org/the-facts-about-uc-davis-olive-centers-olive-oil-report https://www.aboutoliveoil.org/the-facts-about-uc-davis-olive... This feels like another one of those areas where as a consumer following the research and knowing what products are good to buy is almost a full time job.
- colanderman 7y ago
  FWIW, they were probably forced to import to meet demand due to the poor California olive crop last year.
  - hoopleheaded 7y ago
    After I noticed the change I went to the website to see what it was about and this is exactly what happened.
pacomerh 7y ago
Right, doesn't it need to say "extra virgin olive oil" to actually be pure?. Otherwise it could be a blend
- kcolford 7y ago
  Extra virgin only means it has been subject to the least amount of filtering standard to the industry. This gives it the most flavour of the olive oils.
tasogare 7y ago
I'm friend with a Tunisian in the country we both live. One day he was really happy, because a fellow countryman brought him a jar of olive oil. I didn't understand, why the hassle of travelling half the world with a product available in any supermarket? He explain, then let me taste it. After that I understood... it's was incredibly tasty. With the industrialization of food we (as a society) forgot the real taste of raw aliments and artisanal intermediate products.
kcolford 7y ago
I read somewhere that the distinction of Kalamata olive oil is reserved only for oil that comes from Kalamata, Greece. It's high end, but honestly the flavour is absolutely worth it. Furthermore, higher end products are usually less likely to be tampered with in a race to the bottom.
- nitrogen 7y ago
  Is there a risk of counterfeits though as you get into the higher end?
cyphar 7y ago
If you want a quick way to test if your olive oil is actually extra virgin olive oil, get a green laser. When it passes through sufficiently pure olive oil the laser will change colour and become red, and then become green again when it passes out of the oil. Obviously make sure you practice responsible laser safety, even for a cheap low-wattage laser.
- LeifCarrotson 7y ago
  Fascinating! I was skeptical at first how the monochromatic light would "turn red", but on investigation olive oil is flourescent! https://www.physicscentral.com/experiment/physicsathome/fluorescent-oil.cfm https://www.physicscentral.com/experiment/physicsathome/fluo... I was looking around with a 532nm green laser pointer the other day, and found that it was almost totally attenuated when aimed at the red (cheap/fake) nectar in my hummingbird feeder. Further experimentation revealed that orange Gatorade was similarly super-absorbent, while beer was pretty transparent to the green light. Just bought some Tonda Iblea DOP-certified oil and will be interested to try this! It's subjectively delicious, curious if it's objectively flourescent (and if my everyday supermarket olive oil is not).

tomatotomato37 7y ago

It's not just might, I think something crazy like 80% of olive oil is adulterated. For whatever reason the olive oil industry has become the target of choice for Mediterranean crime syndicates.

r6754dw 7y ago
Try buying Greek if you can find that. At least the Greek brands of extra virgin olive oil I've bought in Northern Europe look and taste just like the locally product I've enjoyed in Crete. Italian and non-EU brands on the other hand taste totally different - and I don't think it's because of geography.
- LargoLasskhyfv 7y ago
  The thing with these suggestions is, they are all anecdotical from a single point in time and (market) space. I remember having read here somewhere, some time ago that maroccan or tunesian olive oil would be very good also, presumably because it isn't under the pressure of massive demand, so less incentive to fraud around it. Since decades this is a topic in consumer testing magazines and public television, and i can't remember anytime they didn't find at least one third fradulent. There are documentations out there, where they travel to Italy, speak with the local farmers, dealers, police and local government to get to root of this problem, and all involved parties (at least on the record) see it as a large problem too. Yet it is persistent.

jedberg 7y ago

From what I read before Costco does independent testing and their olive oil is unadulterated. Might be something to look into if you have Costco nearby.

pmoriarty 7y ago
"Costco does independent testing and their olive oil is unadulterated" One of the interesting things I learned from the honey article was that fraudsters have figured out how to work their way around tests, at least for honey. I wouldn't be surprised if they could do the same for olive oil and other food products. It seems like a cat and mouse game. Something not mentioned in the article is that testing labs themselves need to be tested, certified, and audited. There have been some scandals in forensic labs where techs have repeatedly falsified test results for decades. This is probably especially a problem when organized crime is involved. If you are at all interested in food safety, I highly recommend "The Poison Squad", about the foundation of the FDA.[1][2] [1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euBoKIm1v6Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euBoKIm1v6Q [2] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0rKnxm3X7M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0rKnxm3X7M
- zamadatix 7y ago
  If they remove enough to detect it was adulterated then would it trigger the allergic reaction though?
  - pmoriarty 7y ago
    Removal isn't the only thing that happens. Sometimes they add in stuff like pollen. Also, just because they fool the particular testing tools that labs use doesn't mean you as a consumer won't have an adverse reaction to whatever it was they put in to the honey. The problem with adulteration isn't exclusively limited to harmful health effects either. Even if your health would not be adversely affected by the adulterants, you might still want to be certain you're getting is genuine. Let's say you bought corn syrup while under the impression that it was honey. It might not harm your health any more than any other corn syrup would, but you've still been defrauded, and what you got might not have the same health benefits that honey has (assuming honey has such benefits). Your purchasing decisions could have an ecological impact too. Effectively subsidizing the growing of corn by mistakenly buying corn syrup will have different ecological consequences than subsidizing the establishment of more bee colonies by buying genuine honey. That's not to mention the ethical issues of being conned in to giving money to fraudsters versus giving it to honest business people.

raducu 7y ago

The romans had an intricate system that prevented oil fraud, they could track and amphora back to the farm it originated in, and every step along the way. We should be able to do the same with modern technology and severely penalize individuals who commit fraud.

TeMPOraL 7y ago
We have even better systems in place than the Romans did. They're just not used unless there's a health emergency (e.g. E. coli in the food).

amlozano 7y ago

I used to trust the California Olive Ranch brand for olive oil, but lately noticed they started labeling their some of their bottles as imported and accidentally bought some. It tastes fine, but if I recall correctly the problems with olive oil usually come from imports where laws and regulation rules change from country to country. Luckily I live close to a real olive mill, but there really is no way to know. Plus you have people arguing the vast majority of olive oil sold in the USA is "authentic" for some measure of authentic, which is really hard to discern: https://www.aboutoliveoil.org/the-facts-about-uc-davis-olive-centers-olive-oil-report https://www.aboutoliveoil.org/the-facts-about-uc-davis-olive... This feels like another one of those areas where as a consumer following the research and knowing what products are good to buy is almost a full time job.

colanderman 7y ago
FWIW, they were probably forced to import to meet demand due to the poor California olive crop last year.
- hoopleheaded 7y ago
  After I noticed the change I went to the website to see what it was about and this is exactly what happened.

pacomerh 7y ago

Right, doesn't it need to say "extra virgin olive oil" to actually be pure?. Otherwise it could be a blend

kcolford 7y ago
Extra virgin only means it has been subject to the least amount of filtering standard to the industry. This gives it the most flavour of the olive oils.

tasogare 7y ago

I'm friend with a Tunisian in the country we both live. One day he was really happy, because a fellow countryman brought him a jar of olive oil. I didn't understand, why the hassle of travelling half the world with a product available in any supermarket? He explain, then let me taste it. After that I understood... it's was incredibly tasty. With the industrialization of food we (as a society) forgot the real taste of raw aliments and artisanal intermediate products.

kcolford 7y ago

I read somewhere that the distinction of Kalamata olive oil is reserved only for oil that comes from Kalamata, Greece. It's high end, but honestly the flavour is absolutely worth it. Furthermore, higher end products are usually less likely to be tampered with in a race to the bottom.

nitrogen 7y ago
Is there a risk of counterfeits though as you get into the higher end?

cyphar 7y ago

If you want a quick way to test if your olive oil is actually extra virgin olive oil, get a green laser. When it passes through sufficiently pure olive oil the laser will change colour and become red, and then become green again when it passes out of the oil. Obviously make sure you practice responsible laser safety, even for a cheap low-wattage laser.

LeifCarrotson 7y ago
Fascinating! I was skeptical at first how the monochromatic light would "turn red", but on investigation olive oil is flourescent! https://www.physicscentral.com/experiment/physicsathome/fluorescent-oil.cfm https://www.physicscentral.com/experiment/physicsathome/fluo... I was looking around with a 532nm green laser pointer the other day, and found that it was almost totally attenuated when aimed at the red (cheap/fake) nectar in my hummingbird feeder. Further experimentation revealed that orange Gatorade was similarly super-absorbent, while beer was pretty transparent to the green light. Just bought some Tonda Iblea DOP-certified oil and will be interested to try this! It's subjectively delicious, curious if it's objectively flourescent (and if my everyday supermarket olive oil is not).