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Olive Oil

In agriculture, olive oil is an oil extracted from the fruit of the European olive tree (Olea europaea L.), which originated in the Mediterranean area. It is used in cooking, cosmetics, and soaps. It is also used by Jews and Eastern Orthodox Christians as a fuel for traditional oil lamps. Olive oil is regarded as a healthful dietary oil because of its high content of monounsaturated fat.

The several oils extracted from the olive fruit can be classified as:

Virgin means the oil was produced by the use of physical means and no chemical treatment. The term virgin oil referring to production is different from Virgin Oil on a retail label.

Refined means that the oil has been chemically treated to neutralize strong tastes (characterized as defects) and neutralize the acid content (free fatty acids). Refined oil is commonly regarded as lower quality than virgin oil; the retail labels extra-virgin olive oil and virgin olive oil cannot contain any refined oil.

Olive-pomace oil means oil extracted from the pomace using chemical solvents — mostly hexane — and by heat.
Quantitative analytical methods determine the oil's acidity, defined as the percent, measured by weight, of free oleic acid in it. This is a measure of the oil's chemical degradation — as the oil degrades, more fatty acids get free from the glycerides, increasing the level of free acidity. Another measure of the oil's chemical degradation is the peroxide level, which measures the degree to which the oil is oxidized (rancid).

"Cold Pressed" Extra Virgin Olive Oil is generally considered the best grade of olive oil. As the name suggests, it is obtained without heating the pressed mass. Heating frees more of the oil but lowers the quality of the resulting oil. Cold Pressed Extra Virgin olive oil is best suited to specialist uses such as salad dressings. Oliveoil has a low smoke point (200°F for fancy flavorful grades, and 400°F for the cheap refined grades) and so is not well suited for cooking at high temperatures. Blended oils containing olive oil are available and combine to make a higher smoke point.

Labels in stores, however, clearly show an oil's grade:

• Extra-virgin olive oil comes from the first pressing of the olives, contains no more than 0.8% acidity, and is judged to have a superior taste. There can be no refined oil in extra-virgin olive oil.

• Virgin olive oil with an acidity less than 2%, judged to have a good taste. There can be no refined oil in virgin olive oil.
• Olive oil is a blend of virgin oil and refined virgin oil, containing at most 1% acidity. It commonly lacks a strong flavor.
• Olive-pomace oil is a blend of refined olive-pomace oil and possibly some virgin oil. It is fit for consumption, but it may not be called olive oil. Olive-pomace oil is rarely found in a grocery store; it is often used for certain kinds of cooking in restaurants.

Olive oil vendors choose the wording on their labels very carefully.

•  "Imported from Italy" produces an impression that the olives were grown in Italy, although in fact it only means that the oil was bottled there. A corner of the same label may note that the oil was packed in Italy with olives grown in Spain, Italy, Greece, and Tunisia. Since Spain produces nearly half of the world's olive harvest, it is likely the oil "imported from Italy" comes from olives grown in Spain.

• "100% Pure Olive Oil" sounds like a high-end product, but in fact is often the lowest quality available in a retail store: better grades would have "virgin" on the label. Having said that, 100% pure oliveoil might be perfect for baking and frying, since high heat can destroy the rich flavor of extra-virgin oil.

• "Made from refined olive oils" suggests that the essence was captured, but in fact means that the taste and acidity were chemically produced.

• "Lite olive oil" suggests a low fat content, whereas in fact it refers to a lighter color. All olive oil—which is, after all, fat—has 120 calories per tablespoon (33 kJ/ml).

• "From hand-picked olives" gives the impression that extraordinary care went into the oil's production, whereas it is not clear that a manual harvest produces better oil than the common tree-shaking method.

Global Market:
Spain leads with more than 40% of world production, followed by Italy and Greece. Much of the Spanish crop is exported to Italy, where it is both consumed and repackaged for sale abroad as Italian olive oil. Although boutique groceries sell high-quality Spanish olive oil at a premium, Italian olvie oil has the popular reputation for quality.

Olive oil extraction

The Manufacture of Oil, drawn and engraved by J. Amman in the Sixteenth Century.
Traditionally, olive oil was produced by beating the trees with sticks to knock the olives off and crushing them in stone or wooden mortars or beam presses. Nowadays, olives are ground to tiny bits, obtaining a paste that is mixed with water and processed by a centrifuge, which extracts the oil from the paste, leaving behind pomace.

Health claims

In the United States, producers of olive oil may place the following health claim on product labels:
Limited and not conclusive scientific evidence suggests that eating about two tablespoons (23 grams) of oliveoil daily may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease due to the monounsaturated fat in oliv oil. To achieve this possible benefit, olive oil is to replace a similar amount of saturated fat and not increase the total number of calories you eat in a day.

This decision was announced November 1, 2004 by the Food and Drug Administration after application was made to the FDA by producers. Similar labels are permitted for walnuts and omega-3 fatty acids which also contain monounsaturated oil.

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Olive Oil".