Extra virgin suicide | Hacker News Reader

Extra virgin suicide

nytimes.com

> one study found that 69 percent of imported olive oil labeled "extra virgin" did not meet, in an expert taste and smell test, the standard for that label

Wat. Can't we do some more quantitative method to figure out if the oil comes from a completely different species?

>completely different species?

My understanding is that 'extra virgin' is process, not species. My understanding is that the first press is 'extra virgin' and the much cheaper "pure" olive oil comes from processing the same seeds- "Extra Virgin" is just the first press, while 'pure' uses more advanced chemical engineering to get all of the oil (and less of the more volatile compounds that give 'extra virgin' it's taste) out of what is left over.

That would make sense - the previous slides talk about adulteration/faking the "olive" part, which had me confused.

A side effect of this is that the "pure" olive oil is much more stable and has a higher smoke point. Wikipedia lists "Extra Virgin" at 160C and "Refined" up to 243C. So if you're trying to create a non-stick surface on something, pure olive oil is better than virgin olive oil.

I really hate it when my local farmers in Spain sell to Italy... We have such lovely oil (I have liters of it from my garden which I drink from a shotglass, it is that good) but seems the marketing machine in Italy is far more mature. It is such a shame.

I agree with you (and I'm originally from Italy!) - unfortunately, there are a few large Oil companies in Italy that import, mix (ruin!), and export again. It's a handful of people, really, but they do a ton of damage. All other (smaller) Italian oil producers are mad at the situation as well.

Those in the Bay Area who like olive oil should visit a Sigona's grocery store in Redwood City or Stanford.

They have dozens of different olive oils from around the world (suspiciously, few from Italy) with different varieties and pick dates and polyphenol counts.

You can squirt different oils into shot glasses and taste them!

http://blog.sigonas.com/2009/12/16/navigating-the-world-of-f...

Many food exporters are playing this EU rebranding game for profit. Eg. with wine it was very popular.

The best olive oil is still from Kalamata/Greece though. There they have farmers collectives with proper quality control.

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