But how can you tell if your olive oil is fake or not? Does the refrigerator test really work? What about the oil lamp test?
These tests are often touted as the solution for determining if your olive oil is fake, but actually they have flawed outcomes that can easily mislead you. There’s only one sure-fire way to know if your olive oil is real.
Journalist Tom Mueller broke the story about how more than 70% of the extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO) sold in the world is fake (cut with cheaper oils) in his best-selling book Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil. He exposed there is no business more slippery than the olive oil business.
And, you might remember when 60 Minutes’s presented”AgroMafia”, where they exposed Mafia food fraud extending into agricultural products, especially olive oil. As one EU official remarked, “It’s comparable to cocaine trafficking, with none of the risks”.
Ever since, we olive oil lovers everywhere have been seeking authentic, 100% real olive oil.
Here is the original GOOD EVOO list and also the BAD EVOO list.
How to Tell if Your Olive Oil is Fake:
The Taste Test
Some of us have been persuaded that we can taste the difference between real olive oil and fake olive oil. But apparently, no… we can’t.
When given a variety of real and fake olive oils to test, even the self-proclaimed taste-testing experts were miserable failures.
Tom Mueller conducted a blind tasting of extra virgin olive oils a few years ago for a national newspaper that wanted “the truth on expensive olive oil”:
We had a dozen oils, and a panel consisting of an importer, an Italian deli owner and a couple of eminent foodies: the results were so embarrassing and confusing the piece was never published. The importer went into a fugue after he was informed that he’d pronounced his own premium product “disgusting”; the deli owner chose a bottle of highly dubious “Italian extra virgin” as his favourite (it had cost £1.99 at the discount store TK Maxx); and both the foodies gave a thumbs-up to Unilever’s much-derided Bertolli brand. (source)
Did you know? The Bertollis were bankers and traders who never actually owned an olive tree, despite the bucolic Tuscan scenes depicted on their labels. They got rich on the back of the incomprehensible twist in European law that, until 2001, allowed any olive oil bottled in Italy to be sold as “Italian olive oil”, which, absurdly, is what we all pay most for. (source)
The Fridge Test
The premise behind this test is that extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO) consists of mostly monounsaturated fats which solidify when cold. So, if you put real extra-virgin olive oil in the fridge, it ought to become thick and cloudy. Some high-wax varieties of olive oil will even solidify completely.
But this is not a fail proof way to tell if your olive oil is fake. There are 2 reasons:
#1: The extra-virgin olive oil is a high-wax variety (which would normally solidify when cold), but it’s cut with low-grade oils from other plants. So, when you put it in the fridge, it thickens up, but doesn’t solidify. This fake oil would pass the fridge test because the so-called olive oil STILL thickened up and became cloudy.
#2: The extra-virgin olive oil is 100% real, but “winterized” (chilled and filtered). Many reputable olive oil producers choose to winterize their oils so that it doesn’t become inconveniently solid on cellar shelves during the winter. By chilling the oil and filtering out the wax that solidifies or clumps up, they can ensure that their oil is always pour-able. This 100% real oil would fail the fridge test, and would only become slightly thick (but not solid) when frozen.
The Oil Lamp Test
Extra-virgin olive oil ought to be flammable enough to keep an oil lamp burning. It will also burn without producing any noticeable smoke. So, if your olive oil will not keep a wick lit (or if it can, but produces a lot of smoke), you can trust that it is fake olive oil.
However, other oils can keep a wick lit, too. So if your olive oil is adulterated with an oil that also burns, it will pass the test even though it’s fake.
See the full list of the GOOD and the BAD olive oils here:
Italian Olive Oil Scam: See the Olive Oil Brands That Failed the Tests
How to Avoid Fake EVOO:
The short answer is to get to know your farmer.
Locally-produced olive oils have always passed every single scientific test of authenticity.
So, buy locally from those you feel you can trust, and you can know your olive oil is 100% authentic.
If you live in Northern California; Texas Hill country; the Willamette Valley, Oregon, or near Lakeland, Georgia, you will have local olive growers to choose from. These artisan farmers are not buyers for multi-national corporations or mafia. They are real people with real families who are passionate about what they do.
A Solution If You Can’t Buy Olive Oil Locally
UC Davis, who did the original research to give us the GOOD EVOO list and the BAD EVOO list, now lists 3 local California artisan EV olive oils here. They report that domestic olive oil from single producers or co-ops is always 100% real.
Almost all olive oil adulteration happens with the middle men. So, if you cut out the corporation, cut out the middle man who buys from hundreds of scattered farms and is likely adulterating the oil, and go directly to the source — the small family farm or small co-op of growers, then you’re going to get the real deal.
“When I grew up in Italy in the 1950s, it was still very agricultural. Food was very important; produce was very important. Everyone made their own olive oil. It took me a long time after I moved here to understand that Americans are much further away from their food.” ~Isabella Rossellini
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Jackie
You posted half an article???
Jacqueline
Hi, Jackie, Hmm..
No, I am seeing the whole article. Use this link: https://deeprootsathome.com/one-way-to-distinguish-100-real-vs-fake-olive-oil/
It is working fine for me and for others. ~J
Jennifer;)
Hi Jacque! I’ve reread the following article several times, and I think see what the previous commenter meant. I don’t see the ‘one way to tell if my olive oil is fake”. I clicked on the link from your very helpful Italian O.O. post, which links back to this one. I don’t…maybe I’m missing something. What is the one way to tell if my oil is fake? Thanks!
Jacqueline
Hi, Jennifer!
Basically, the header “How to Avoid Fake EVOO: Get To Know Your Farmer” and this sentence should clear it up: “..So, buy locally from those you feel you can trust, and you can know your olive oil is 100% authentic.”
Hope you are all well! Enjoy your Memorial Day!
Jacque