Queridos Ladies & Gentelmen,
We are MYSYBARITAS your Spanish Gourmet Food Store in Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur
Today I want to talk to you about Olive oil, we know it can be a confusing topic. As you know we have different types & brands of EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil).
If you go to the supermarket there are so many more! We want to help you to choose the one you want.
Label Names:
Here we have your basic label names:
1. Extra virgin olive oil
2. Virgin olive oil
3. Refined olive oil/Pure olive oil/Olive oil
4. Light/Extra light olive oil
5. Olive pomace oil (different grades)
But only one of the types mentioned above is the type of olive oil you want to be consuming on a daily basis.
That is your Extra Virgin Olive Oil, also known as EVOO. This is the only kind of olive oil you want to make apart of your diet on a regular basis.
Let's have a look at this grades!
1. Extra virgin olive oil:
It must have a free acidity (expressed as oleic acid) less than 0.8%. Extra virgin olive oil must meet both chemical and sensory standards (free of sensory defects) in order to be classified as extra virgin olive oil.
Chemical standards are very stringent and include such variables as free acidity, peroxide and phenolic values along with a number of other variables.
Extra virgin olive oil is also the healthiest as it contains more antioxidants and vitamins than any other grade. Extra virgin olive oil is rich in monounsaturated fat. It also helps protecting the heart and cardiovascular system.
2. Virgin Olive Oil:
Is Olive juice that had been mechanically extracted from raw milled olives, but with the virgin, it is allowed to increase the heat to extract more oil from the olives, and make the total cost production lower.
Being less quality, the standards for the acidity are higher, it is below 2%
3. Refined Olive Oil/Pure Olive Oil/Olive oil:
In this case, the virgin oil paste goes through some chemicals, to further dissolve and then increase, the final quantity from the original olives. Usually after this process, the oil losses many of its healthy benefits.
Tye oil is rendered, colorless and tasteless, and then is added a small percentage of olive oil to give it a bit of colour,taste and aroma.
The acidity here is completely free.
4. Light/Extra light olive oil:
This is basically the same as pure olive oil. Light refers to the oil's color and mildness of flavor, not the calorie contentt (most olive oils are 100 percent fat and contain about 120 calories per tablespoon).
Made with an extremely fine filtration process, light olive oil has a more neutral flavor.
5. Olive pomace oil:
This is made from the residue left over from previous olive pressings. It is refined with solvents and mixed with some extra virgin oil.
This residue is treated with solvents to extract the oil it contains to obtain crude olive pomace oil.
As it is not edible, it has to be refined to obtain refined olive pomace oil. This oil, with no flavour, aroma or colour, is improved with edible virgin olive oils (not including lampante) to obtain the oil called olive pomace oil.
An important tip to takeaway, is that there is no difference in caloric intake when consuming different grades of olive oil, it doesn't matter what grade it is. So this is why it's important to choose the most nutrient dense version of olive oil (aka extra virgin olive oil) so you reap the most health benefits!
I hope you enjoyed the article!
Be First Class!