There are tests are often touted as the be-all-end-all for determining if your olive oil is fake, but unfortunately they’re flawed tests that can easily mislead you. How To Tell If Your Olive Oil Is The Real Thing?
There’s only one sure-fire way to know if your olive oil is real.
The best way to tell if extra-virgin olive oil is the real deal—which is to say not adulterated, mislabeled, or flat-out rancid—is to taste it.
That’s easy enough to do in our kitchen, but good luck pulling that off in the grocery store. You can’t just open bottles at leisure and start sampling.
The simplest test? If you don’t cough or have a tickle in your throat it is likely your oil is not high quality (or even olive oil at all!).
When an oil goes rancid, it oxidizes. You know how the health world glorifies antioxidants? Oxidized food is the opposite of that—meaning, yes, your olive oil could be hurting your health more than helping.
How To Tell If Your Olive Oil Is The Real Thing
Determine where it was made
Just because you read “Made in Italy,” it does not necessarily mean the oil was made with Italian olives.
Ideally, you should look for places like Florence, Siena, Lucca, Palermo or Messina which are located in the olive-growing regions .
How is it bottled?
It’s essential for olive oil to be in a dark colored glass, in order to protect it from UV light. If it’s in a clear glass or plastic container, put it back on the shelf.
How To Tell If Your Olive Oil Is The Real Thing
The Fridge Test
Put the olive oil inside the fridge, it will solidify. Unfortunately, this test is not foolproof. Other oils can react similarly.
The Lamp Test
If you burn real olive oil in an oil lamp, it will produce low amounts of smoke. Well, this test is not foolproof either. Oils can make different amounts of smoke.
How To Tell If Your Olive Oil Is The Real Thing
Open the bottle, pour a quantity into a small glass.
- Look at it. Does it look like olive oil? It shouldn’t be bright (fluorescent) green. Only very-very-very fresh early harvest olive oils are green but We don’t think you will get them of the self AND they are very expensive. Bright green is probably due to added chlorophyll to cover the vegetable oil’s color.
- Swirl it. How “thick’ does it look? Many vegetable oils have lower density than olive oil. They “feel thinner”.
- The BIG ONE: Smell it. Does the smell immediately remind you of olive oil?
If the answer is NO there is a 95% chance it is NOT olive oil. To make sure you can have it analyzed. Nothing too difficult or expensive. A refractive index will do since all vegetable oils have characteristic refractive index values. The analysis takes less than five minutes. Trust your nose.
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