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The Great Olive Oil Deception: Is Your "Extra Virgin" Really Extra Virgin? · The food files

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Food Files. Today we're going to be
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: looking at olive oil. You pick up a bottle of
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: it at almost any grocery store and you'll probably see
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  Speaker 1: two words printed proudly on the label, extra virgin. It
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  Speaker 1: sounds pure, healthy, and premium. It's also one of the
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  Speaker 1: most commonly faked claims in the entire food industry. Welcome
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: to the Food Files. First, what does extra virgin actually
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  Speaker 1: even mean? It isn't a marketing phase. It's a grade
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  Speaker 1: with real standards. Extra virgin oil has to be mechanically
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  Speaker 1: extracted from olives without heat or chemical solvents It must
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  Speaker 1: pass lab tests for things like acidity and signs of oxidation.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: And here's the part most people don't know. It has
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  Speaker 1: to also pass a taste test. Train panels, sniff and
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  Speaker 1: sip the oil, check for defects like rancid, musty, or
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  Speaker 1: vinegary flavors. If a panel finds a defect, the oil
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  Speaker 1: cannot legally be called extra virgin no matter what the
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  Speaker 1: lab numbers say. So why is it so easy to fake? Money.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: Good extra virgin oil, olive oil, is expensive to produce.
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  Speaker 1: Olives bruise, harvest fails, and the oil degrades with heat, light,
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  Speaker 1: and time. Meanwhile, cheaper oils are easy to come by.
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  Speaker 1: Olive oil fraud generally takes a few forms. Sometimes lower
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  Speaker 1: grades of olive oil, including refined oils treated to remove
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  Speaker 1: off flavors are relabeled as extra virgin. Sometimes olive oil
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  Speaker 1: is blended with cheaper vegetable oils and sometimes old or
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  Speaker 1: poorly stored oil. This isn't just a theory. Researchers testing
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  Speaker 1: imported supermarket oils have found many bottles labeled extra virgin
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  Speaker 1: that fail the standard. And European police operations targeting food
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  Speaker 1: fraud have reportedly seized oil being passed off as something
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  Speaker 1: it wasn't. Catching the fakes is a scientific cat-and-mouse game, though.
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  Speaker 1: Labs use chemical analysis to identify the fatty acid fingerprints
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  Speaker 1: of other oils, and newer techniques can detect signs of
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  Speaker 1: refining or blending. But fraudsters adapt, just like every criminal,
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  Speaker 1: and testing every bottle and every shelf simply is not possible.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: Most of us have never tasted, actually, truly fresh, high-quality
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  Speaker 1: olive oil. Real extra virgin oil can taste grassy, fruity,
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  Speaker 1: even peppery enough to make you cough. Many consumers expect
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  Speaker 1: a mild buttery oil instead, so a bland degraded oil
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  Speaker 1: can seem normal to many. In other words, fraud survives
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  Speaker 1: partly because our expectations have been trained by the fakes.
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  Speaker 1: So what can you do? Look for a harvest date,
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  Speaker 1: not just a best buy date. Look for the harvest
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  Speaker 1: date and buy the freshest you can find. Choose dark
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  Speaker 1: glass or tins, which protect oil from light. Be skeptical
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  Speaker 1: of very cheap extra virgin and look for reputable producers
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  Speaker 1: or certification seals. Once you open a bottle, use it
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  Speaker 1: within a couple of months. The next time you drizzle
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  Speaker 1: that oil on your salad, take a taste. If it
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  Speaker 1: bites back a little, that might be the best sign
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  Speaker 1: of all.