How to know if you are buying real olive oil.
 

This makes me mad. What other products are we buying that are not what we think?

The University of California, Davis, conducted its own investigation back in 2010 revealing that 69 percent of imported and 10 percent of California-based olive oils are fake, failing to pass International Olive Council and Department of Agriculture guidelines for extra-virgin olive oil. You can access that report here:

OliveCenter.UCDavis.edu.



Put the suspect bottle in a fridge IN THE GROCERY STORE before you pay for the stuff then come back and look for a cloudy oil the REAL olive oil will be cloudy the fake stuff is clear.

mine was cloudy - thanks for the information!

:eek: was just about to buy some...thanks!

I buy Pompein brand olive oils. This brand passed the guidelines and is sold in most stores.

Verrrry interesting!!! Thanks for the tip.

where did you find the guidelines? do they list brands that are ok?

There was an interesting article in Consumer Reports a couple of months ago about this subject and they found many of the olive oils labeled as virgin or extra virgin were of much less quality. I can't recall all the specifics but Pompeii was one brand that was the real thing---I remember being surprised by that because I had always viewed it as a 'cheaper' quality. The only other specific brand I remember was Bertelli which is what I had been buying but it didn't pass the CR tests.

WOW, how interesting. Thanks for the post.

Check the ingredients in honey. Some have been infused with fructose. The only ingredient should be.....honey.
sandy

Very interesting posts. Thanks.

You have to research the food items you buy. I read labels on every food item I buy. I am very against GMO foods and it's hard to find which ones aren't. I am surprised at how many think a carton of fruit drink is real fruit juice! Do not buy that for kids.

I buy local honey from a beekeeper. There are many in my area. Non pasteurized and each jar has a big honeycomb in it. My uncle was a beekeeper so growing up we always had a big bowl of honeycomb full of honey on the kitchen counter. That was our syrup, dipping sauce, and candy.

very interesting and informative. I need to see if mine clouds. does it un cloud
after taken out?

I use California Olive Ranch brand. Grown in USA, Non GMO, Processed right on the ranch it is grown on. Wonderful stuff!

Good olive oil should be in a dark glass bottle for best protection and cold pressed, never blended.

EDIT: The cloudiness is from fat ( other than olive) solidifying.

I keep mine in the fridge all the time....i don't use it fast enough and once way back when a bottle went rancid !! YUK !! In the fridge it becomes semi-solid -- kind of gelatinous when really cold....I use a long thin spoon to get out what i want.

thanks. that's all I use anymore!

While this is being discussed, the same caution applies to maple syrup. A lot of it is fake. I always buy USDA Organic. It is expensive, but we (I) shouldn't be using that much of it to begin with. :D I'm also against GMO foods.

You should only eat locally "made" honey. This helps with allergies. Honey is somewhat medicinal. We have a "queen-bee" who attends our church. I always get my honey from her.
Glad to know about the olive oil being cloudy. I got some from the store and when I got home it was cloudy. I was afraid to use it. Guess it's the good stuff. It was cold this winter.lol

Can't stock up...olive oil does not keep!!

I suspect the water situation out there is going a affect at least the PRICE

Thanks for the tip...

I may be wrong about this, but olive trees are a Mediterranean plant so they are well suited to a dry, arid climate. I think they would be a better tree to grow in CA than oranges. nature will catch up to our destruction and alterations of the environment. Most of the water in CA doesn't even belong there. We made the bed and we have to live with our deeds.
It is no ones fault but ours that CA is running out of water.
I do not have any affiliation with the company other that it being a good product that I like.

http://www.californiaoliveranch.com/


peace

Is this the 2010 study? http://olivecenter.ucdavis.edu/resea...410updated.pdf

It appears that the refrigerator test for cloudiness is not accurate:
http://olivecenter.ucdavis.edu/resea...iablefinal.pdf

Turning cloudy is not the same a turning solid.
Many think good oil will turn solid in the cold, like bacon grease or shortening. No true for oils as those links show it doesn't mean bad quality if it doesn't turn solid. I check for cloudy.

Since we are checking....check your dairy products. Gov. mandates that any low fat milk product must have palmate, because taking the fat out also takes all/some of the vit. A out.
Palmate is an artificial vit. A. that your body cannot assimilate. Whole milk is not required to have it. I called
Strauss Family dairy farms and that is why its in their low fat products. I was concerned because I only use organic milk products. Linhawk

vitamin D has been added to milk for ages, in making the decision to do so, they decided it was a product that nearly everyone uses so a good base.
What a funny old world we've created.

You also have to watch out for coconut oil. There is cheap stuff and expensive stuff. Coconut oil should be raw, not refined. The raw stuff is shelf stable, and is better than the refined.

Good to know!
My son is actually talking about moving to CA. We live in Ohio, the area called The Black Swamp.
Moving from one extreme to the other. He hasn't moved yet, maybe he's rethinking all this

This is scary for us because my daughter has life threatening nut allergies and some of the companies are rumored to be adding nut based oils to their olive oils. We've been using Philipo Berio who told me theirs is pure 100% olive oil but I'm going to switch to California Olive Ranch. If you email them with questions (I had to ask about allergens) they will send you recipes and coupons. I got three $1 off coupons.

Isn't it a nice company! Im happy to hear this.
peace

what you think is "honey" in the dollar store is "honey flavored syrup" - gotta read the label. Real local honey is more and more expensive. Oh, well, I did not need the calories anyway...

Fear not! Aussie olive oil is amazing....just buy ours.