What Sets Extra Virgin Olive Oil Apart from the Rest? (I)

There's a lot of confusion about olive oil quality grades — and it's particularly hard to tell a genuinely good Extra Virgin Olive Oil apart from the rest. Let's shed some light on the differences between the oils you'll find in any supermarket, and of course, why their prices vary so much.

Natural olive oil and refined olive oil

These are the two main categories. Natural olive oil is obtained purely through mechanical processes. Refined olive oil, on the other hand, undergoes some form of heat or chemical treatment — and as a result, it loses much of its flavour and most of its antioxidants. Why do they bother? First: to lower its acidity to between 0.4° and 0.6°. Second: to cut costs (no surprises there). Large producers buy olive oil from many different sources — most of it low quality, with very high acidity levels above 3.3°. They buy it cheap, treat it with heat and chemicals, and it ends up on supermarket shelves in attractive packaging — an oil that bears no resemblance to a natural one. Refined olive oil is usually blended with virgin olive oil, although you'll find some very cheap brands where the oil is 100% refined. Why blend it? Well, because labels that read something like "contains exclusively virgin olive oils and refined olive oils" sound quite reassuring, don't they? Here's an example from a random supermarket:

How can you tell if an olive oil is refined?

The answer is simple: it must be stated on the label — even if the print is tiny. So if your close-up vision isn't great, you may well struggle to spot it. It's also become fashionable to label oils as "Mild flavour" or "Intense flavour." This is almost always a sign that you're looking at a refined or blended oil (a mix of natural and refined). So, we've learned a little more about refined olive oil versus the benefits of natural olive oil — which is infinitely richer in natural antioxidants, far better for you, with a pure and unaltered flavour, and no chemical processing involved. In the next instalment, we'll look at the differences between the various types of natural olive oil: how to tell Extra Virgin Olive Oil apart from virgin olive oil and plain "olive oil" — the natural kind, not the refined one ;) I hope you found this useful — feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below. Thank you!