10 RULES TO BUY THE BEST EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL

When you want to buy the best extra virgin olive oil, you should first read carefully the information provided on the label.

You need to know that food products need to have a label that respects laws and regulations of the country where they are produced as well of the country where they distributed and sold. This is to protect final consumers.

Let’s start from what the expressions “extra virgin” olive oil or “cold pressed” really mean.

These expressions can only be used when the olive oil is of superior category, obtained directly from olives and solely by mechanical means (so using a cold press). Therefore this means that the olive oil was extracted at low temperature with a machine and without chemicals. All other vegetable oils that do not have the expressions extra virgin or cold pressed on the label are extracted at high temperature and with chemicals.

Therefore vegetable oils such as sunflower oil, avocado oil, coconut oil, etc are refined with chemicals when the label doesn’t specify “cold pressed”. This is why, these vegetable oils are very very cheap (and unhealthy!).

Going back to extra virgin olive oil, what is very important to know is that the fact that the olive oil is extracted at low temperature and without chemicals is only a first step that allows producers to write extra virgin or cold pressed on the label.

However, to be cold pressed is not enough for an extra virgin olive oil to be of high quality and to be rich in antioxidants which allow to prevent many health diseases.

To find out if your extra virgin olive oil is of high quality and rich in antioxidants, you need to go trough an organoleptic test: which means that you should use your senses and only trust your nose and palate.