Golden olive oil - how to choose the right one? How to choose natural olive oil

Since Hellas times, olive oil has been used in many ways. It was used in cooking, used in religious rituals, and added to cosmetics. The history of olive oil has reached the present day. Only now its range of applications is much wider. The oil has received grades and, depending on the degree of processing, it can be selected for a particular procedure. You can find out which one is better for salad and which one is better for frying meat from the article. Reviews on various brands olive oil and video.

Types of olive oil labels

Depending on the quality of the olives, the processing method will be different. Therefore, it is customary to distinguish several types of markings for oil:

• Virgin;
• Refined;
• Pomace.

Virgin or vergine/vierge – considered the purest and natural oil. This unrefined oil obtained during the first spin process. The temperature at which the procedure is performed does not exceed 27 degrees. Thanks to this, it remains a large number of vitamins and minerals.

The oil is prepared as follows: all the ripened olives are collected. Moreover, only those fruits that grow on the tree are taken. Fallen olives are not suitable for making high quality oil. The selected harvest is soaked for some time, then it is placed in a special centrifuge for extraction. The resulting plant extract is filtered and bottled to be sent to points of sale.

This is ideal for preparing salads, baked goods, and sauces. It has quite fragrant aroma. It is not used for frying as it heats up and burns. This will cause meat and other foods to have a rancid taste.

Due to its natural nature, extra virgin olive oil has a short shelf life. But despite this, it has the highest cost.

Refined is a second-press oil that has been refined. It has virtually no olive aroma. The refining procedure is as follows: the collected fruits are ground, then a solvent, hexane, is added to them. In terms of chemical properties, it is an analogue of gasoline. When it reacts with the product, it promotes the release of oil. The oil is drained, and the reagent is removed under the action of water vapor and alkali.

Virgin olive oil is the purest and most natural

The next stage of oil processing is its purification. The cloudy composition is bleached and deodorized. Thus, the output is refined deodorized oil. The cost is lower than virgin oil. It can be used for frying and baking.

Pomace is a product obtained from olive pomace. They squeeze it a second time using chemical solvents that squeeze out the last drops of oil. Its quality is not the best; it has a bitter taste and sour smell. This is explained by the fact that this olive product contains more acids than those listed above. In addition, Pomace oil has virtually no vitamin substances. All of them were lost during the primary and initial secondary processing. However, this oil is cheaper than others. This product is suitable for frying and cooking soups.

Advice. When traveling, it is better to purchase olive oil as a souvenir in vintage stores.

What do they say on the labels?

You can find a variety of olive oils on supermarket shelves. It would seem like the same oil, but it has so many prefixes. Here are their names:

For Virgin oil use:

• Extra virgin olive oil - this designation is used for the most natural olive oil. The acidity level in the product is less than 1%, it is obtained from olive puree during the first extraction;
• Virgin olive oil - the oil also belongs to the first-press category, however, the acid balance in it is increased to 2%, which slightly affects the taste and is slightly less expensive;
• Ordinary virgin olive oil - biological reagents were used in the process of pressing and extracting the oil. Ordinary virgin olive oil is also of high quality. But its composition differs slightly in acidity - 3%.

For Refined oil:

• Refined olive oil or olive oil - the cost of this oil will differ from Virgin oil, since it is obtained in the second pressing and does not have such a rich aroma. This is explained by the use of physicochemical reactions, which are removed bad smell, bitter taste and tart sourness. But carcinogens in such a product are minimal, so don’t be afraid to buy it for frying.

For Pomace olive oil they write:

• Olive-pomace oil is an oil obtained by mixing two olive substances: refined pomace oil and virgin oil. This oil can be purchased for frying and cooking foods. It does not burn and withstands high temperatures well;
• Refined olive-pomace oil - pomace oil of very low quality.

Attention! Refined olive-pomace oil is rarely found on sale. It is mainly sent for sale to catering establishments and fast foods.

Popular olive oil producers

Olive plantations are located where there is a lot of sun. Mainly in the Mediterranean. Olive oil producing countries are: Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey. Each country has its own brands of olive product:

1. Popular producers in Greece are: Agia Triada, Agrotiki S.A., Ilida, Mediterra S.A., Terra Creta S.A., Union of Agricultural Cooperatives of Sitia, Minerva, GreekElita.
2. In Spain, the leading oil suppliers worldwide are: Borges, ITLV, Maestro de oliva, 5Valles, Aceites Garcia Moron, Aceite de olive Valderrama, Acorsa, Antonio Cano e Hijos, Bodegas Roda, Sucesores de Morales Morales, Olivar de Segura, Candor.
3. In Turkey - ANTAKYA.
4. In Italy - CASA RINALDI, Raineri, Mate.

Despite the fashion for various diets and weight loss, fats cannot be completely excluded from the diet. Firstly, they have the highest energy intensity: when burning 1 g of fat, 9 kcal of heat is released, and when burning 1 g of protein or carbohydrates, only 4 kcal. Secondly, some lipids (structural) are the “building materials” of cells. A systematic lack of fat leads to a reduction in life expectancy, and with a sharp restriction, resistance to the development of atherosclerosis is lost. The human body cannot synthesize linoleic and linolenic acids, which are precisely contained in vegetable oils. Vegetable fats contain vitamins E and K and promote the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins A and D. The recommended fat content in the diet is 30-33% of the total energy value of food. That is, the norm of fat consumption for an adult is 80-100g per day, of which the third part should be vegetable oils.

Olive oil differs from others in its high digestibility. This is because about 70% of the fatty acids in olive oil are oleic acid. It is also the dominant one in the composition of human fatty acids. The main suppliers of olives and, accordingly, olive oil are Spain, Greece and Italy. When buying olive oil, it is important to know what is hidden behind a particular name. Therefore, we provide a detailed official classification of olive oil.

TESTING
Olive oil is not cheap, which is why you want to get a really high-quality product for the money spent. For testing, we selected 11 popular brands of olive oil with the "extra virgin" label on their labels. It is this category of olive oil that is in greatest demand among consumers. Oils were brought to us from different countries: Spain, Greece, Italy and Turkey. The key point of testing was the identification of the oil, during which it was necessary to find out, firstly, whether all oil samples were really olive oil, and secondly, whether they corresponded to the concept of “extra virgin”.

Labeling and Packaging
There were no comments regarding the packaging of the oils, but shortcomings were found in the labeling. There are no storage conditions in plain language on the bottle of Costa d'Oro oil. The nutritional value ABEA olive oil and Borges oil calories are per spoon, not per 100g. Information is printed in very small print on the labels of Maestro de Oliva, Monini and ITLV oils. On the packaging of ITLV, Costa d'Oro, Borges and mana gea oils there is no warning that the oil becomes cloudy in the cold. But to people who do not know this, it may seem that the oil has simply gone bad.

Olive flakes.
Unrefined olive oil has one natural property: if you keep it in the cold (in the refrigerator), the oil becomes cloudy and, even more so, flakes fall out. This does not mean that the oil has gone bad. The fact is that oils contain waxes like beeswax, only vegetable. They are olives and when pressed they turn into oil. When the temperature drops, the waxes harden and fall out in the form of flakes or form fine clouds. If the cold flaked olive oil is brought to room temperature, it will become clear again. A similar situation happens with sunflower oil, only to make it cloudier you need more low temperatures, for example, in the frosty winter at the markets. To avoid such changes that frighten the consumer, refined sunflower oil is frozen - the waxes are removed. They try to keep olive oil in its original form as much as possible and therefore do not freeze it out, but put warnings on the label.

Laboratory research
The main focus of testing oils in the laboratory was to establish their authenticity. To begin with, the fatty acid composition of the oils was determined, because it is in the composition of fatty acids that one vegetable oil differs from another. The easiest way to adulterate olive oil is to dilute it (to a greater or lesser extent) with cheaper vegetable oil, such as rapeseed oil. At this stage, the oils were encouraging: all tested samples turned out to be truly olive; the presence of any other oil (uncharacteristic fatty acids) was not detected.

Another way to falsify oil is to sell refined oil or blends under the guise of a more valuable and more valuable one. expensive oil first spin. Since all tested samples position themselves as “extra virgin”, i.e. Since extra virgin olive oil is of the highest quality, the requirements for such oil are the highest. In Ukraine, however, there is no standard for olive oil. But there is an international standard CODEX-STAN 33-1981. Since the adoption of this document, it has been revised and supplemented several times, constantly tightening the requirements for oil. One of the important indicators of olive oil is acidity. It reflects the suitability of the oil for food purposes and shows the content of free fatty acids, the accumulation of which indicates a deterioration in the quality of the oil. Extra virgin olive oil must have an acidity of no more than 0.8 g per 100 g (in terms of oleic acid). Three oils had higher acidity than required by the standard: ABEA, Oscar and Ravika.

Another important indicator for identifying olive oil is ultraviolet absorption. At a wavelength of 270 nm it should be no more than 0.22; at 232 nm - no more than 2.5 for "extra virgin". Only 4 out of 11 oils passed this test: Premiya", Borges, mana gea and Maestro de Oliva. The remaining oils showed higher absorption values ​​in ultraviolet radiation, which means not correspond to the concept of "extra virgin". The greatest deviation from the norm was recorded for Oscar and ITLV oils. The norms for absorption in ultraviolet at 270 nm for other categories of olive oil are higher. For example, for refined olive oil from pomace, the value of this indicator can reach up to 2, 0.

Organoleptic evaluation
It’s one thing when vegetable oil is present in a salad, and quite another to taste it. Therefore, the organoleptic assessment was entrusted to professionals. Olive oils have the taste and smell of fresh olives. Oils may also contain “green odors” – grass, freshly cut hay, lettuce leaves. And even such unusual ones as chocolate and anise. The oils are tasted at 20 0 C. To determine the smell, the oil is applied thin layer on a glass plate (you can use a white plate) or rub it on the back of your hand. To determine the color, the oil is poured into a glass with a layer of at least 50 mm and examined in transmitted and reflected light, always against a white background. At the same time, not only the color, but also the shades of the oil are determined.

Price and quality

In terms of price, mana gea oil stands out significantly: 100 ml of this product will cost 44 UAH, while the cost of olive oil of other brands per 100 ml does not exceed 15 UAH. I'm glad that such high price corresponds to high quality. The overall assessment of mana gea oil, as well as the more affordable Premiya and Borges oils, is “excellent.” Maestro de Oliva oil has an overall rating of "good", which coincides with the organoleptic rating. These 4 oils correspond to the concept of “extra virgin”. Another 7 tested oils, although they turned out to be real olive oils, did not correspond to the concept of “extra virgin” stated on the label. Therefore, the overall rating is “bad” for the oils “Ellada”, ABEA, Costa d’Oro, ITLV, Monini, Oscar and Ravika.

Avicenna equated olive oil to medicine. And for good reason! This amount useful substances and there are no antioxidants in any other vegetable fat.

However, the product you buy at your local store may well be useless or - even worse - chemical and made from waste. To avoid mistakes, do not pay attention to the price tag, but read the foreign words on the label.

People learned to make olive oil back in the 4th-5th centuries. BC e., and since then it has become a key product of the Mediterranean - it is used to dress salads and pour over bread, fry and bake with it, and make aromatic sauces and fillings from it. Over time, the solar product came to Russia, however, our ancestors called it not olive, but Provencal or Florentine - depending on where it was brought from. Unfortunately, it is not easy to find oil from Provence in our stores now: the French product is one of the most expensive. Italian olive oil, including from Florence, is sold more often, but it is not cheap, so it does not have mass popularity. The leaders in oil sales in our country are Spain, Greece and Tunisia.

Virgin natural

Surprisingly, today olive oil is made almost the same way as in Old Testament times - it is squeezed out of olives mechanical presses. At the same time, they do not use any chemicals, unlike the production of sunflower, which is popular in our country - its production was improved by Dmitry Mendeleev, who proposed a method for extracting oil from sunflower using... gasoline. Residents of the Mediterranean did not follow this path, did not pursue profit and retained the naturalness of their product. Virgin olive oil is what it is called according to the European code of food laws, the Codex Alimentarius. Virgin can be translated as “virgin” or “virgin”, that is, a product untouched by chemicals. When you buy olive oil, do not read the price tag on the counter or the translated information on the label (it is often incorrect or incomplete), but look for the foreign words virgin olive oil on the bottle.

The more sour, the worse

In addition to just a “virgin” product, manufacturers also distinguish extra virgin olive oil, fine virgin olive oil and semi-fine virgin olive oil. They differ in acidity - the most important characteristic olive oil, which is influenced by the initial quality of the olives and the pressing temperature. The higher the indicator, the worse the product. Usually (but, unfortunately, not always) acidity is indicated on the label as a percentage. For example, in extra virgin it should be no more than 0.8%, in regular virgin – up to 2%. There is another virgin oil that sometimes has a characteristic higher than 3% - lampante virgin olive oil. Due to its high acidity, its taste and aroma are far from ideal, so it is not sold, but sent for processing. Nowadays refined olive oil is sometimes made from it (refining reduces acidity), but previously it was used for technical purposes and was called lamp oil (in Russia it was known as wood oil).

Impersonal refined sugar

Refined olive oil can be identified by its clear yellowish color and the name refined olive oil on the label. True, if you want to buy a truly healthy and rich-tasting product, you probably shouldn’t opt ​​for purified ones. Firstly, they are usually not refined too much good oil– tube or low-quality virgin. Secondly, during cleaning the product loses most of its nutrients. And its taste changes, it becomes, as experts say, impersonal - the olive notes are lost. That is why virgin oil is sometimes added to refined oil to make it more noble and a mixed product is created. You can distinguish it by the name on the label: it is simply called olive oil.

Chemical "pomas"

Along with natural olive oil, there is also “chemical” olive oil. Only it is made not from the fruits, but from what remains of them after pressing. This paste-like mixture is called “pomace”, and the oil from it is called olive-pomace oil. Residents of the Mediterranean do not like it, so... they send it for export. As a result, a bottle of golden oil may well appear on Russian and Ukrainian shelves, with the local saleswoman writing “olive” on the price tag. To avoid running into such a “fake”, carefully read the foreign name. There are two types of pomas. The first is refined olive-pomace oil, which is made by purifying the oil from the extracts. The second is simply olive-pomace oil, a mixture of refined pomace with virgin oil, which gives it some taste and aroma.

Remember one more thing beautiful name second-rate product – orujo. That’s what they call it in Spain, and it means the same thing as pomas – push-ups. Therefore, when you see the word orujo on the bottle, know that this is far from natural olive oil.

The darker the sweeter

The color of olive oil ranges from dark brown to light green or light yellow, and it can tell you a lot about the product. For example, the shade largely depends on the color of the fruit at the time of harvest.

If the oil is greenish, it means it was obtained from unripe olives and will be slightly bitter. However, there is another reason for the “herbal” tint - an admixture of leaves and twigs that got into the “alteration” along with the fruits.

Purple-blue oil is obtained from riper fruits.

The yellow color is provided by finally ripened olives (we call them olives). True, the same color is characteristic of rancid fruits, so you can distinguish them from ripe ones only by taste.

Dark brown or almost black oil is obtained from olives that have already fallen to the ground, so it is, to put it mildly, a little sweet for everyone.

However, assessing the taste of olive oil is not very easy - tasters identify about 70 terms that describe the product. For example, the good quality of the oil is indicated by the aroma of apple, sweets (but not sugar), grass, hay, lemon, slight bitterness, almond, pepper and sorrel. If you feel the taste of earth, mold, metal, salt, walnuts, cucumber or rancid, which means the technology of the product has been violated.

Oil doesn't like cold

Once you buy good olive oil, learn how to store and use it correctly. For example, keep it in a cupboard and not in the refrigerator - at temperatures below 7-8º C the product becomes cloudy and whitish crystals may form in it. If you do put the bottle in the cold and flakes appear in the oil, do not be alarmed. It has not deteriorated and will become transparent again at room temperature. There is another typically Russian mistake made by olive oil lovers - they don’t cook with it, for fear that virgin oil will smoke the same way as unrefined sunflower oil. In fact, “virgin” is perfect for frying - it does not burn, does not change its taste, and does not form carcinogens. It is even allowed to be used up to 5-6 times. And most importantly, virgin gives an excellent, appetizing crust, just don’t feel sorry for it when frying.

Important

The packaging of the branded oil has a blue-yellow circle with EU symbols and the inscription Protected designation of origin (PDO) or Protected geographical indication (PGI). This means that the product is made according to an old recipe from a special variety of olives.
Expert opinion

Anatoly Gendin, specialist in world food crops, Locator agency

In all Mediterranean countries, homemade oil tinctures are very popular. rustic style. You can make them by tossing a couple of cloves of garlic or a few small but vigorous chili peppers into a bottle of olive oil. You can also add a sprig of rosemary, thyme or other herbs. There is no point in frying in such flavored oil, but your salads will become even tastier. Thus, even a refined product can be refined.

Ideal olive oil

1. It is called extra virgin olive oil (extra virgin) or virgin olive oil (virgin).

2. Has a brand - a round blue badge with EU symbols and the letters PDO or PGI.

3. Acidity – up to 0.8%.

4. The color is rich, “thick” yellow, without sediment or white flakes.

5. The country of production is indicated, there is the exact address of the manufacturer, importer and exporter.

6. The implementation period has not passed the second half.

My friends, hello everyone!

Let's talk to you today about one of the MOST valuable vegetable oils for our body - about olive oil and how to choose the most delicious and healthy olive oil.

Olive oil is truly unique.

It is mega-good for health! And they call it nothing other than “liquid gold”!

And the point here is not at all in its “golden” price, but precisely in its USEFUL properties. Why is it so useful?

From this article you will learn:

What are the benefits of olive oil?

ABOUT wonderful properties Hippocrates spoke about olive oil for our body; Aristotle was the first to use it to treat his patients.

And the beautiful Queen Cleopatra took a spoonful of this nectar on an empty stomach all her life for health and youth! And it was famous for its timeless beauty! ☺

• First of all, it is rich in healthy fatty acids, the most important of which is oleic acid.
• Reduces cholesterol levels in the blood and is necessary to improve the functioning of the entire gastrointestinal tract: for the health of the liver, kidneys, gall bladder, and intestines.

For those who have a heart condition, ONLY this oil should be on the table and in dishes! It is not without reason that among the inhabitants of the Mediterranean, where its consumption is highest in the world, cases of heart attacks, strokes and other diseases of the heart and blood vessels are very rare.

• Very important! It is absorbed by the body 100%!!! For example: sunflower - only 80!
• It also perfectly heals the skin and eliminates

We can talk about the benefits for a very long time. And this is a topic for a separate and larger post.

In this article, the question is different: how to choose the “right” olive oil? How not to buy a fake instead of real “liquid gold”? The price, after all, is not small now...

Correct question ☺ It is worth looking into thoroughly.

Which olive oil is the healthiest?

The Extra Virgin (or Extra Vergine) class is considered the most useful - this is the first cold press.

It is UNrefined and of the highest quality. It is obtained by cold pressing and does not use any chemicals.

Essentially, this is pure olive juice.

Therefore, the entire spectrum of useful substances remains intact.

Its color is green, its taste is tart and bitter.

Used exclusively in cold dishes, salads, sauces that do not require heat treatment.

What other types of oils are there?

Pure olive oil – pretty oil High Quality. This is a mixture of refined olive (85%) and Extra Virgin (15%).

Simply perfect for frying. It is believed that with this ratio in the composition, no carcinogens are released when heated.

So, let's look at the main points on how to choose olive oil:

• Bottle

I think that it is unnecessary to say that the bottle should under no circumstances be plastic ☺Of course, it should only be made of glass and only dark!

• Label

First of all, you need to study the composition on the label.

• 1. Determine the composition of fatty acids, and, first of all, of course, the most important one - oleic.

Look how much it contains. It must be at least 55%. Great if it's 83%!

• 2. Determine acid number.

The acid number will tell you about the presence of free fatty acids. The higher this number, the worse the quality.

For Extra Virgin it is no more than 1.5. Ideal if 0.5!

• 3. Determine peroxide value.

For Extra Virgin – no more than 20 mmol/kg.

What does it say? About the oxidation of fats when exposed to oxygen from the air.

Why is this oxidation harmful? Simply put, oil oxidized by exposure to air is pure poison.

And the higher the peroxide number, the more susceptible it is to oxidation.

The lower the peroxide number, the higher the quality.

• 4. Determine the mass fraction of moisture.

This is a very important indicator! The lower the proportion of moisture in the product, the greater the concentration of nutrients.

A good figure is 0.1%. Ideal – 0.06%.

• 5.Pay attention to the expiration date.

Buy the freshest oil.

After 6 months of storage, the process of loss of beneficial properties begins!

Do not buy oil that was made more than a year ago!

• 6. You can do another check at home.

Place the purchased bottle in the refrigerator. If you see that white flakes have formed at the bottom of the bottle, then you have in your hands the “original” of the bottle itself. best quality. Congratulations! ☺

This is the “olive information” for today, friends ☺

Write, information on how to choose olive oil will be useful to you.

I really hope that this information is useful to you in order to easily choose a truly high-quality product!

Alena Yasneva was with you, Bye, see you soon! We still have a lot of interesting things ahead!

Counts mandatory component most dishes of Italian cuisine, and is also used as an excellent cosmetic product. A tasty and aromatic product made from olive fruits is simply irreplaceable for moisturizing the skin and improving the condition of the hair.

But everything is not so simple - you need to know how to choose a quality one so that it really turns out to be effective and does not disappoint. Several parameters will help you make your choice.

How to choose a good one Step one

First of all, understand what types of this product there are. Oil labeled virgin is considered very high quality. This is a product that is used for squeezing ancient technology. The extra virgin label distinguishes the oil from the first cold pressing. This is maximum quality with a pleasant fruity taste and the benefits of the olive are fully preserved. The bottle that says refined on it will, as a rule, contain a not very high-quality product. This is a transparent, yellowish oil, which is produced from raw materials of average quality, without olive notes in taste and without useful substances in the composition. If there are no marks on the oil, it is a mixture of cold-pressed oil. There is also special kind- pomas. This is a leftover product. olive fruits obtained after spinning.

It is considered not of very high quality and is not popular in the countries of manufacture. In Spain, the same type of oil is called orujo.

Step two

Once you have memorized the markings, you can move on to other ways to determine quality. First of all, it is color, smell and taste. How to choose by color? Try to find a product that is dark yellow in color. This is considered a sign of high quality. In general, the color of the oil can be either dark brown or light green, with different shades. It is determined by the degree of ripeness of the olives - greenish oil is made from unripe fruits and is slightly bitter, more ripe olives give a purple-blue hue, and completely ripe ones give a rich yellow. The black hue of the oil comes from olives that have fallen to the ground.

This variety will have a sweetish taste. How to choose olive oil to taste? If you have the opportunity to taste the product, know that the taste should not be rancid or vague. High-quality oil will have a taste of spices, herbs, almonds, and a slight bitterness. If you felt the taste walnut, cucumber, metal, earth, salt or mold, the product is definitely of poor quality and produced with violations of technology. How to choose olive oil by smell? Almost the same as the taste. The main rule is that the smell should be pleasant, tart and herbaceous. Foreign aromas indicate a low level of quality or incorrect production technology. Oils with an unpleasant odor should be avoided both in cooking and in cosmetic procedures, as they will do nothing but harm.

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