A question of virginity
Posted on 07-07-10 · The Mommy Journals Tags: business, consumerism, food, government, money
If you’re one of those parents who follow health news closely for the sake of your family and you use a lot of olive oil in your cooking hoping to keep the cholesterol levels down, you ought to know that whenever you buy a bottle of extra virgin olive oil, you might be getting something else. And this is a serious concern especially in countries where the exclusive source of olive oil is importation. If you’ve been wondering why olive oil has become more “affordable” during the past few years, it’s not necessarily because competition — the laissez-faire system — naturally brings prices down.
The LA Times reports that the USDA will start to get really serious with the enforcement of standards on olive oil quality following complaints about diluted or blended oils being passed off as extra virgin. Currently, there are no rules that determine what is “virgin” or “extra virgin.”
The thing is, the problem is not necessarily nor exclusively at the retail level. Importers of olive oil may not even be aware that they aren’t getting what they’re supposed to. And the mistake is passed on to consumers, perhaps unknowingly. Three years ago, The New Yorker published a jaw-dropping report about a tanker that left Turkey carrying 2200 tons of hazelnut oil in its hold. By the time it reached Italy, the hazelnut oil had miraculously become Greek olive oil per the ship’s documents. And it wasn’t an isolated incident. Of course, it’s The New Yorker — I’ll leave it to you to decide how credible the report is.
The website of a group promoting Palestine olive oil manufacturing companies has some words about a “study in Italy found that only 40 percent of the olive oil brands labeled ‘extra-virgin’ actually met those standards.” Since the company is a competitor of Italian olive oil makers, again, I’ll leave it to you to decide just how objective the claim is.
Of course, it’s about business. Shady business, to be more precise. With the popularity of the Mediterranean diet which hit the world less than a decade ago, the demand for olive oil has been soaring. And in any part of the world, there will always be businessmen who will want to profit from the minutest investment. Remember the melamine scandal? Same banana.
The problem is that these businessmen are playing with the health of millions of people — us, the unwitting consumers. The average household does not have the equipment nor the technological know-how to test every bottle of olive oil that comes from the supermarket. What do we do?
The new administration has said a few things about vigilantly protecting the rights of consumers. Will that extend to a strict monitoring of imported food items? Let’s see, shall we?
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We rarely use olive oil in our house because we’re not fond of Mediterranean dishes.
As per the new administration’s promise of protecting consumers’ rights, they have a lot of work to do. To start off, they really need to reign on crappy customer services offered by local telcos.
Insofar as telcos go, I can only wish that this administration would NOT encourage more call centers. Because it really boils down to that — the inefficiency is due to outsourced labor.
I am dumbfounded by this post. I really put a premium on purchasing good quality EVOO. I can accept that while this country has standards for organic certification, almost every farmer and cook can lay its claim to be serving “organic.” But for those that are produced and manufactured in more developed countries, products like oil or wine, I was under the assumption that there are high standards for their production and that these standards are being complied with. And it sucks that no matter how much you try to be an informed consumer, you are always at the mercy of profit-driven companies.
We used olive oil for a while but after a while we realized it’s still frying. Although there are alternative means of cooking (steaming, grilling), masarap pa rin ang pinirito.
From food to phone and internet service, we consumers always get less than what we’re promised. There are laws and laws about seller’s warranties but…
how come jhay always comments first? lol
we love cooking with olive oil, it also has that distinct flavor, yet some can have that stronger flavor and some are really bland. now i have an idea why. thanks ma’am, this is very relevant!
Jhay uses a RSS reader, I bet, and gets alerted every time a new post is published. Right, Jhay?
Thank you for the article, tita Connie.
A lot of the dishes I love cooking (mostly pasta and some self-made recipes) require Olive Oil, or the flavor just isn’t the way I want it. I’ll definitely have too read up on which brands our cupboards should be stocked with.
I’d swap with sesame oil, but once again, its taste just isn’t right for some dishes
I remember watching an episode of Barefoot Contessa that better olive oils have an apple-green tinge on them. From personal experience, I agree; parang mas pure ang amoy at lasa, and a little goes a long way, di tulad ng olive oil na yellowish.
You might have something there. I once got my hands on a bottle of olive oil from Dubai (via a family friend), and I did notice that it had a much greener tinge than the brand I buy at the local Hypermart.
It smelled better too when I cooked it. Too bad it was too expensive for me to get my own bottle
I’ve sensitive taste which could include beer and other liquors (excluded are wines). I can only say that olive oil has significance in preparing salads.I can say that I can taste it.
Other than that, if it’s in cooking,I don’t see any difference.
I’m just curious if one can really tell, in cooking, one can tell that an olive oil has been used instead of the usual veggie oil.
I’m just curious.
Of course. Even the aroma is different.
Perhaps you’re right. It seems to me I’ve noticed it.
What I’ll do is to do a replication.
Balikan kita.
He he he, you’re right with the smell. I still want to do more taste test .
A very interesting post Ms. C! I only use olive oil for salad dressing. Anyways, I just saw a segment of a show at Lifestyle network a couple of days ago about olive oils. It seems like there is a group where olive oil produced in California gets graded according to their quality so that consumers will know if they are getting the real stuff.
here’s the site
http://www.cooc.com/
I had been using olive oil for a quite a while. Strong taste and greenish tinge characterize extra virgin. Most olive oil on the market are refined to neutralize the strong taste or blended with other oil. Remember there is only less than 10% of extra virgin from the olive oil producing countries. It is also driving the price up. Here is the catch, some of these are marketed as extra virgin when repacked.
Yes, repacked. Italian brand is notoriously overpriced when compared with olive oil from other countries. And to think that the 3rd largest exporter Greece exported all its olive oil to EU with 3/4 went entirely to Italy. So the Italians are doing the con job of being the 2nd largest exporter. Amazing.
My advice stick with extra virgin from Spain, the number one exporter with considerable drop in price. The good news Australia is joining the olive oil production with Asia and EU as the market. Maybe it can depress the price in Asia.
I use olive oil…or let’s just put it this way, i breathe olive oil and because of this i can tell when olive is mixed with something else. real pure extra virgin olive oil is heaven.
as well as people need to be educated on the use of olive oil. its not just for cooking, but for salads (in lieu of those fatty mayo based dressing), for bread (together with balsamic vinegar or even with just a bit of salt and pepper for dips), so vegies (use again for dressing or dip) and just for everything else including facial wrap with avocado and almonds.
There is fruity taste associated with olive oil. That is why it (extra virgin) is excellent for salad and and bread dip. Once you have been using olive oil, you probably don’t want to go back to the other oils, except if it is too pricey.
Since we are 100% Pinoy, forget for a while the bread and salad. So we always look for rice, right? Yep! My favorite use of olive oil is for fried rice, pork adobo, ribeye steak (in worcestershire sauce) and home style sardines. It is just pure heaven. There is the sweet aroma of olive and its flavor.
I’m not a fan of expensive cooking ingredients but my sis insists I buy her a bottle of Olive Oil for our mom’s upcoming birthday celebration. I went to the grocery yesterday and to my dismay, the stuff they sell are pricey and I have only 200 pesos with me. I found in the bargain section a discounted bottle of olive pomace oil. It’s less than 200 pesos so I can still buy a bar of chocolate. I texted my sister and asked if I can buy that instead of the olive oil but she still insisted I buy exactly what she asked for. Naghagilap tuloy ako ng barya sa bag just so I can buy a bottle of it. Buti may pamasahe pang natira sa akin.
Is there really a difference between olive and olive pomace oil? I mean they both are made from olives and they look the same to me but the former is only pricier.
After reading your article, mas lalo nakaka-alangan bumili. Kahit may mga marked down na ring olive oil maybe because malapit na yun mag-expire.
Olive pomace oil is a mixture of olive oil and pomace oil.