Get the Facts

Timestamp

Inaccurate Statement

0:00-0:20

You’re buying fake extra virgin olive oil. In fact, 70 percent of the EVOO at a normal grocery store is fake. And that’s a really big problem because extra virgin olive oil is expensive. And actually the study comes from UC Davis. They have an olive oil institute right there. They have the numbers.

Facts

This is completely false. Most importantly, the authors of the cited UC Davis report have since clarified that their findings should not be applied to today’s olive oil market. The disclaimer, available here, states: “The results in this report are based on samples purchased from California retailers in 2010 and should not be used to characterize the quality or authenticity of olive oil currently available in California or elsewhere.” (Emphasis added.)

Additionally, there are numerous credibility issues with the report. In 2018, a federal court threw out a lawsuit against Bertolli that was based on the UC Davis report because the judge found it flawed for three key reasons: 1) there are fatal flaws in its methodology, including the fact that it was based on a subjective taste test and a very small sample size; 2) at nearly 10 years old, the report is stale and has no relevance to today’s marketplace; and 3) it was geographically limited to oils purchased in California.

In addition to the problems cited by court, the UC Davis report is intrinsically suspect because it was funded by California olive oil producers and companies, which have a financial interest in increasing market share and damaging the reputation of imported oils. At the time the UC Davis report was published, an attorney in California filed a class action case against several companies whose products were named in it. As a responsible lawyer should, he attempted to repeat the results with an independent investigation. When he could not replicate the results, he dropped the lawsuit, something class action attorneys are not known to do lightly. In explaining the dismissal, the attorney is quoted as saying, “The results are blatantly inconsistent. We would not be able to carry our own burden of proof or have consistency from our experts.”

0:28-0:40

Inaccurate and Unsupported Statement

So how is it fake? Extra virgin olive oil, or EVOO as I call it, has to have a number of certain requirements to be considered or graded EVOO. Most, 70 percent, at the grocery store don’t meet that.

Facts

Again, UC Davis has made it clear that their findings should not be used to characterize the quality or authenticity of olive oil currently available.

0:40-0:53

Inaccurate Statement

The problem is they’re also oftentimes cut with lower-quality processed plant-based oils like canola, soy, corn, peanut, to dilute them. That’s really bad because you’re not even getting extra virgin olive oil then.

Facts

While the results are not relevant in today’s marketplace, even at the time it was released, the UC Davis report did not find any evidence of adulteration (i.e., olive oil being mixed with other types of oil).

In reality, U.S. consumers should have a high level of confidence in the quality and authenticity of the olive oil they buy. A study by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), whose peer-reviewed research was published in the Journal of American Oil Chemists’ Society, tested 88 extra virgin olive oil samples off the shelves of Washington, D.C.-area retail outlets and found no confirmed adulteration in any of the samples tested. The FDA concluded that the occurrence rate of adulteration for the samples they analyzed was “low.”

The FDA’s findings mirror the results of the NAOOA's robust monitoring efforts, which sampled an average of close to 200 olive oils annually directly from retail shelves for 20 years. The olive oils were tested in independent labs certified by the International Olive Council (IOC). The IOC was chartered by the United Nations more than 50 years ago to oversee the production and quality of olive oil around the world. The cumulative results of the NAOOA’s testing support the finding that 98 percent of olive oil sold in U.S. retail outlets is authentic.

0:53-1:02

Inaccurate Statement

And another problem is a lot of them are made with old, rancid, rotten olives, usually from last year’s harvest. I’ll talk about that in a second.

Facts

This is completely false, and there is no evidence to support it. Extra virgin olive oil is produced through the natural crushing of fresh olives without heat or chemicals. When in doubt, use your senses. The difference between fresh and rancid oil is very noticeable, even without a refined palate. Rancid oils are often described as smelling or tasting like crayons, wet carboard, sawdust or putty.  

1:02-1:20

Inaccurate Statement

And oftentimes they’re mystery olives. They’re sourced from different parts of the world, maybe like Tunisia, Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, pressed in another country, and you don’t even have any traceability. You don’t know what you’re getting. That’s really a problem because extra virgin olive oil is one of my favorite fats to cook in.

Facts

First, blending is a legitimate and common practice that occurs when extra virgin olive oils produced from different varieties, groves and/or regions are packaged together and sold as a single product. Blends of extra virgin olive oils are properly labeled as extra virgin olive.
 

Second, one reason extra virgin olive oil is many people’s favorite is precisely because some producers blend olive oils with different taste profiles that may come from different regions or even countries to make a blend tailored to the preferences of American consumers.

There are also very specific country-of-origin labeling requirements for olive oil, which are enforced by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. “Product of XX” refers to the origin of the oils in the bottle, meaning those olives were grown in that country (i.e., “Product of Italy” means the olives were grown in Italy). “Imported from XX” or “Packed in XX” refers to where the oil was bottled; it does not mean the olives were grown in that country. Whether a company includes a “bottled in” or “packed in” statement or not, it must, in order to comply with the law, include a “Product of” declaration, and if olive oils from several countries are blended elsewhere, then each of the countries must be listed on the label as the countries of origin.

1:44-2:00

Inaccurate Statement

But here’s the two ways they cheat in extra virgin olive oil that’s most prevalent. Number one, they cut it with those inferior oils, which is horrible like I said. But imagine you have an allergy to peanuts, to soy, to corn, and you cut that into your oil there. That’s a problem.

Facts

Beyond the fact that olive oil adulteration is exceedingly rare as noted above, it is misleading to claim that adulterated oil poses a health risk to people with allergies. Most edible oils (like peanut oil or soybean oil) are refined, and the refining process removes any allergens. Even in the unlikely case of adulteration, the adulterated oil is highly unlikely to cause harm. In fact, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration doesn’t even require peanut oil to be listed as an allergen on food labels. This statement is needlessly alarming for consumers.

2:00-3:09

Inaccurate Statement

But here’s the other bigger problem for me, too, is that a lot of time these oils are made with inferior olives. This is actually illegal, but it’s so hard to catch. Here’s how they do it. They use old, rancid olives. Some of these olives will be sitting on the ground a long time or be stored from months and months ago. That’s not good, but also they’ll use oil from last year’s harvest. This oil or these old olives, rancid olives, are spoiled, they’re bad. Normally your mouth or your nose would taste that or detect it, but they’re tricky, tricky dicky, right? What do they do? They refine it, they process the oil to death to get rid of the funk, to get rid of the spoilage so you can’t taste or smell the rancidity, but it’s there, and what happens when that occurs is that you reverse all of the goods things I just talked about. When you have rancid, bad oil that’s cut with inferior oils, all of a sudden instead of having polyphenols, it’s gone. Instead of attacking free radicals in your cell, it actually has free radicals in there. Instead of being anti-inflammatory, it’s inflammatory, so the whole thing is flipped on its head, which is totally bogus because EVOO is expensive.

Facts

This statement is false on a number of levels. First, as mentioned above, extra virgin olive oil is produced through the natural crushing of fresh olives without heat or chemicals. The difference between fresh and rancid oil is very noticeable, even without a refined palate. Rancid oils are often described as smelling or tasting like crayons, wet carboard, sawdust or putty. Additionally, extra virgin olive oil by definition is never refined with heat or chemicals, so it’s completely false to suggest that extra virgin olive oils are regularly refined to disguise rancid flavors and smells. 

Olive oil is, however, a natural product. It is not unusual (or illegal) that a virgin olive oil may have flavor defects that prevents it from being considered “extra” grade. Such defects can be caused if the olives are crushed soon after harvest, from insect infestation, or a variety of other production issues. If the flavor defect is mild, the oil can be sold as virgin olive oil. Where, however, the flavor defect is really strong, that must be refined before it is old. There is nothing illegal or improper about this practice. The majority of other oils on the market are all 100% refined. The difference is that the refining process for olive oils is much less aggressive than that used for seed oils, almost all of which are extracted using solvents. No olive oils, whether extra virgin or refined, are ever extracted using solvents. Regardless of whether an olive oil is refined or not, it certainly won’t become a substance that contains free radicals or has inflammatory properties.

4:50-5:42

Inaccurate Statement

Even though you add heat to this EVOO (indicating Kirkland brand), yeah you do change some of the flavor and ruin some of the, you know, previous EVOO notes, it’s totally fine because I don’t want olive oil that’s been really processed and refined. And that’s the problem with most mass market olive oils or EVOOs you see at a grocery store. They’ve been homogenized and processed to death so they have the same flavor note from bottle to bottle. That’s impossible. It should never be like that…But the big box EVOO makers want a certain flavor or homogeneous flavor every single time, so they process it and refine it to death, and that’s when you reverse the good health benefits, and it’s not really good extra virgin olive oil in the first place.

Facts

This is false. Again, extra virgin olive oil is by definition never refined or processed. No heat or chemicals are used at any point in its production, and the flavor varies based on a wide range of factors.

5:43-5:52

Inaccurate Statement

And my friends over at the FDA, this is very low on the totem pole for them. They don’t have time to regulate EVOO like they would other things that are way more serious.

Facts

Olive oil is a priority for FDA. Our organization, the NAOOA, has been in discussions with the FDA with the objective of creating a national standard for olive oil. In fact, we recently filed a petition with the FDA advocating for the creation of a standard of identity for olive oil. (It’s actually the third such petition we’ve filed since 1990.) Such a standard would be enforceable, and it would enable consumers to make more informed choices about their health by creating clear definitions for the different olive oil grades and types and establishing consistent labeling regulations.

5:52-6:09

Inaccurate Statement

And if you ever see a bottle of EVOO that says “light” or “extra light,” do not buy that. They’re actually refining the delicate or robust flavors of EVOO out with heat processing and refinement, and then it’s garbage at that point. It’s absolutely ridiculous, so go with the ones I recommended.

Facts

This is false. First, “light” olive oil and other regular olive oils are a different grade from EVOO, so you won’t see those terms on a bottle of EVOO. It’s also important to understand that all grades of olive oil have significant health benefits because they all have the same levels of heart-healthy monounsaturated fat. As noted above, olive oil whether it is EVOO or light tasting, is also NEVER extracted using chemical solvents. While EVOO offers the most health benefits, it’s better that a consumer who prefers less assertive flavors or a lower price point should use a milder olive oil than other less healthy (and flavorless) cooking oils, most of which are extracted by chemical solvents. All olive oils are healthy, but the more flavor the more potential health benefits.

6:48-7:00

Inaccurate Statement

You get really good EVOO by buying the ones I talked about and knowing that they’re single-estate or single-origin extra virgin olive oil, and most of the stuff at the grocery store is bogus except for the ones I mentioned.

Facts

This is not only false but also potentially detrimental to the health of consumers. First, there are hundreds if not thousands of brands of quality olive oil on the market. While we certainly encourage people to enjoy olive oil at any price point that fits their taste and budget, it’s important that consumers aren’t scared away if they can’t afford to fork over a small fortune for estate-bottled or other specialty olive oil. It’s a total fabrication to say that grocery store olive oil is “bogus” – particularly when the only evidence given for that is a decade-old report that has a disclaimer stating clearly that it’s no longer relevant. The reality is that consumers should be confident in olive oil quality, especially when buying from a retailer they trust and a brand that they know. And always be wary of buying olive oil at a price that’s too-good-to-be-true. If a consumer does want to try a brand they don’t know, the best thing to do is take it home and taste it immediately. If you don’t like how it tastes, return it!