Worth a king’s ransom: the non-negotiables of Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Olive Oil has been defined as the backbone of the Mediterranean diet, and rightfully so. Nearly 90% of the 865 million olive trees in the world are in the Mediterranean basin, yielding 95% of world production; 60 million of those secular plants, with their gnarled, stately trunks and spindly argentine leaves, belong to the biome of my native Puglia, the limb of the Italian peninsula immersed in the Mediterranean sea and protruding towards the Orient.

Olive harvest and milling season in the Northern Hemisphere is typically October through January. Every year during those months, a viscous, sappy scent of the fruit being crushed inundated my grandparents’ house, whose kitchen terrace overlooked the loading dock of a frantoio, an olive oil mill. That heady scent of freshly pressed olives is so steeped in my childhood and youth memories, that a good extra virgin is a Proustian madeleine to me.

Sharing the olive oil legacy has been part of my wellness crusade over the last few decades. Looking back, I may have managed to nudge a few of my olive oil tasting and cooking audiences in the direction of better health, or at least I sincerely hope I have.

Making high-quality extra virgin olive oil a habit means so much more than adding an entry onto a grocery list, it is a way to maintain the body in optimum health, thanks to its innumerable benefits. Beware of counterfeits and surrogates though; below is a list of 10 non-negotiables that might help take the guesswork out of shopping for the real thing, as well as storing and using it properly:

1.Always look for a ‘first cold pressed’ labeled product. There is only one ‘Extra Virgin Olive Oil’, in terms of production methodology used to obtain it, and it is the pure juice extracted from olives only once, by mechanical means that exert high pressure on the fruit. To the effects of the legal Extra Virgin appellation, it is unlawful to employ heat or chemicals to shortcut this process. It’s really that simple, one might say, but the truth is it’s all but effortless, and countless resources go into ensuring all stringent standards are rigorously met.

2. It’s a perishable food, buy it fresh. Ideally, you should look for the most recent harvest date, taking into account that shelf-life for extra virgin olive oil, if unopened and properly stored, is roughly two years since harvest . Most reputable olive oil producers typically stamp harvest date and/or a ‘best by’ date on the back label. An open bottle will stay fresh a few months, particularly if the antioxidant content is very high, as is the case with some Southern Italian varietals. It bears pointing out that a sealed product, if shielded from heat and light, will not go bad at midnight of the best-by-date and turn toxic, it simply won’t retain all the beneficial or organoleptic properties of a recently harvested product. Once the oil does reach the point of rancidity, it still won’t harm you, it will just smell and taste funky. The more polyphenols the type of cultivar has, the longer the oil will last.

3. Bypass the bargain product. As I mentioned, countless human and technological resources need to be deployed for that bottle to reach the shelf, which is among the reasons why olive oil is likened to gold and, truthfully, the reason why underpriced products on retail shelves can only be impostors.  One way around the bargain snare, if you are a newcomer to the world of olive oil, is to first identify niche products with the highest price points, such as Italian DOPs or IGPs (production area and cultivar specific) certified oils, then compare those with the lowest discount products you can find in supermarkets. If the cost of the niche product seems too steep for you and you’re not quite ready to make that investment, always opt for a product that is priced within a range closer to that highest price bracket than to the lowest one. Searching the internet can also help you acquire a sense of what current market pricing is for high standard olive oil. Underpriced olive oils are undoubtedly not in line with quality standards, whether because they were shabbily produced, blended with obscure oils, or unsold for too long and nearing best-by-date. The bigger truth is that net sale profits for ethical producers of extra virgin olive oil are low due to production costs (for reference, it takes a picker 47 minutes to pick the olives needed for one liter of oil), whereas for counterfeiters they are exponentially higher. Taste aside, the cost of Extra Virgin Olive Oil is only fully justified as an investment in your short and long term health; many low grade products are nutritionally void, and to add insult to injury, if adulterated with inflammatory and oxidative seed oils, they could be detrimental to your health.

4. Free acidity, listed on the label, must be no higher than 0.8%. Free acidity is a measure of oxidative degradation of the product, it indicates how much naturally occurring environmental damage has affected the oil. Olive harvest and pressing happen consecutively within 24 to 48 hours, although some experts maintain that delaying these beyond 24 hours may compromise quality. The olives must be picked directly from the tree at a specific point in the maturation process, never from the ground (fallen olives are already in an oxidative state), then promptly transported to the mill in stackable, breathable crates to inhibit mold and environmental damage. That 0.8%, which is calculated per 100 grams of product, denotes all operations have been properly coordinated and carried out, and the oil is from wholesome olives.

5. Packaging is key. Plastic bottles don’t get the approval of experts, since from a strictly chemical standpoint, olive oil is an acid, and as such it will cause harmful substances like phthalates to leach out of the bottle and into the oil. Opt instead for dark glass or opaque ceramic bottles and stainless steel containers, which will help shield the oil from ight and heat, its sworn enemies. Bear in mind the color of extra virgin olive oil is not indicative of its quality, it simply varies among cultivars used, which is one of the reasons why blind tastings are conducted by experts in small blue glasses. There are counterfeit products out there that look dark green from the addition of chlorophyll, a trick to deceive consumers who erroneously think the greener, the better.

6. Skip the tap trap. The constant opening and closing of the taps on those sexy, shiny tanks in some olive oil bars lets oxygen in continuously, and as the level of oil goes down in the tank, the top portion of the tank fills with oxygen, causing the oil to oxidize. Some of these places may or may not feature tap technology that prevents oxygen from getting in. When in doubt, don’t.

7. Exercise your tasting muscles. The organoleptic (taste, smell, color and feel) properties of a good olive oil are complex and layered, and they vary significantly across olive varietals. Aromas are typically present that are reminiscent of the region of production. Firstly, a good extra virgin is pleasantly viscose in texture, with a silky, persistent mouthfeel; it tastes and smells fresh and grassy, literally like just picked olives. You may detect notes of artichoke, tomato, apple, almond, herbs and citrus, among the ones commonly described.  If you are a novice, bear in mind that bitterness, pungency and spiciness, far from being defects (as sometimes falsely reported), denote the presence of healthy polyphenols and tocopherols, which are the plant’s innate defense against the elements and act as powerful antioxidants in the human body. A subpar or oxidized product will instead be musty, moldy, waxy and metallic, and have a pasty, gooey consistency. Doctored olive oils, which are usually laced with oils like sunflower or canola, will tend to be waterish and bleak, void of convincing aromas or flavors. And no, contrary to what some believe, free acidity cannot be detected by taste, however defects indicate it exceeds the 0.8% gold standard.

8. Unfiltered, best if close to the source. Many people I know are keen on buying unfiltered olive oil, which retains some olive particles. My guess is because it adds an earthy, old-world charm to the experience, since it is undistilled, bottled right after pressing to preserve its primitive flavor. The truth is, however, that the presence of debris in the oil reduces the life span of its antioxidant compounds, and the presence of bioactive moisture downgrades the vegetable component rather quickly. In other words, in the short term, the oil loses its desirable organoleptic qualities and some of its health benefits. Unfiltered oil is meant to be consumed within 12 months from production, and used quickly after opening the bottle: if you factor in importation and distribution times, on top of not knowing how long those bottles have been sitting on store shelves, you know it’s probably not a good idea.

9. Hide that bottle. Correct storage is key to preserving the health benefits and flavor profile of the oil. Keep your bottle away from light and heat sources, such as near the stove, and since olive oil absorbs chemicals and odors, away from cleaning products and foods like onions and garlic. Do not refrigerate extra virgin olive oil, the condensation that forms inside the bottle will damage it. Also, buy a quantity you will use up quickly, but if bulk is your thing, pour the oil into smaller bottles that you can open as you need it.

10. You can and should use it for cooking. Let no one tell you otherwise. People in Mediterranean countries have never not cooked with olive oil. Contention has been disingenuously raised by shady producers of chemically engineered seed oils in the US and Canada: I have heard shifty propaganda by well compensated ‘health experts’ stating that cooking with seed oils is healthier than cooking with EVOO. Thankfully, science has repeatedly stepped in: the fatty acids in Extra Virgin Olive Oil are much more resistant to heat induced oxidative degradation compared to most ‘vegetable oils’ or ‘seed oils’ which, incidentally, start off as carcinogenic and highly inflammatory even in an uncooked state. For a good Extra Virgin, the smoke point, or the temperature at which degradation begins, is 410°F/ 210°C, making it suitable for sautéeing, roasting, grilling, broiling, baking and poaching.

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References:

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jf035241f