Recently there was an article that I shared on Facebook that got a lot of responses. The article used dramatic language about “fake” olive oil that rankled a lot of foodies, suggesting that not only are a lot of olive oils not extra virgin olive oil but that are mixed with other oils.
The Test
What I personally wanted to know after perusing the article is… Are my oils actually extra virgin olive oil? I use two in my kitchen: PC Splendido Cold-Pressed Extra Virgin Olive Oil and (also Loblaw’s owned) No Name Light Tasting Pure Olive Oil. Splendido is for making salad dressings and I cook with the No Name Olive Oil.
The test? Put the oils in the fridge!
I took the article’s advice and put the oils in the fridge and then promptly forgot about them. If you want to test yours just put the oil in the fridge for half an hour. If they start to solidify, it means that there is a large amount of monounsaturated fat = REAL olive oil.
I was thrilled to see that BOTH of my oils solidified in the fridge and was quite surprised! Clearly the colour is different and the No Name is probably of a lesser quality because it is not the colour of olives but hey, that was more than I was expecting from it.
So how do you think your olive oils do with this test? What olive oil do you use?
Update!
I have a friend who sent me this link that saying the fridge test is BUNK but I want to point out that I put my canola oil in the fridge and two hours later… Transparent! I think there is truth in the quality of the oil and being monounsaturated.
I don’t use much oil but … back when I lived on the east coast and had the heat off, my olive oil that was in the kitchen. FROZE.
But yes, I did know about fake oils. It’s a shame but that’s the way it goes.
Woah!!! Now THAT is COLD!!!
I know, I was young and nuts. I never wanted to run my heat.
So…….how do I know that my olive oil is real olive oil
That fridge test is total bogus and not reliable. One of the biggest myths out there, to supposedly test whether olive oil is real. You should do some research and you’ll find out for yourself. The fridge tests proves nothing.
I put Splendido in the fridge yesterday and there is no solidifying at all. The 2017 harvest now being sold was very sparse and the Splendido which used to solidify no longer does. It’s also thicker and less ‘green’ than it was. It’s probably adulterated, at least the 2017 batch. We are consuming this for the health benefits and may be harming ourselves with adulterated harmful oils such as soybean. This is unacceptable.
Hi Suzie,
Thank you so much for making this article. I am INFURIATED that our olive oil is being tainted by CANOLA OIL, SOYBEAN OIL, etc.
The commenter above me said that their Splendido is mixed with something else? Wow, that explains my constipation I have been having while using Splendido recently.
How can we truly trust where our olive oil is coming from? Even the list of best ranking olive oils, what if the mob in Italy paid off the people to make theirs at the top of the list while cutting their oil with canola?
List here: https://www.wboo.org/worlds-best-olive-oils.html
I have been drizzling Splendido on everything since it is supposedly so good for your liver and bile production to have fat and protein to help lymphatic drainage as per my research…
SO in my healthy detox soups, I have been adding Splendido… I am APPALLED that this oil (expensive too) is bad.
I was very upset when I tasted the Krinos brand (thought it was real) gave me heartburn and realized it had an off taste like canola. I was infuriated…this was in 2022 when I realized this. It was like $30 a bottle and sold at most expensive specialty stores. One would think the high price would mean it is more pure!!!!!! It tastes MORE unhealthy than Splendido.. And yet I am ingesting canola oil even without knowing?!?? I am infuriated and extremely angry and upset.
and how on EARTH can we trust Kirkland when we know who owns Costco now? I mean seriously ‘they’ would want to put more canola oil and bad stuff in Kirkland brands than anything but people have said online that that was the one that they stuck by in terms of most pure.
I wonder if this oil is what is causing my health issues recently including red eyes, bad digestion as I said and…
honestly anything with ‘PC’ on it is like a farce to me. Including another product I just threw out (will come back to amend this comment when I remember)… it MUST be fake or cut with bad toxic stuff if it is part of that brand, sadly.
I cannot remember which product I just threw out a few days ago that had the red ‘PC’ on it, and it connected in my mind to try looking up if Splendido was in fact just as bad.
Like..how can they not put that in the ingredients!? Isn’t it morally wrong to say 100% cold pressed if there is canola or soybean? What if someone is allergic?
WOW.
I know this post is old… wanted to add to it. The two oils above are not the same. One is EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) and the other just oil. The EV in the name is protected BY LAW and guarantees the oil comes from a specific region. Therefore, if the bottle has an EV, it is olive oil.
The NO NAME brand DOES have an EVOO, as well as a “pure” olive oil (above). You have to be careful to read the label when buying–which is the real crime (companies are banking on people not paying attention when they pull the bottle off the shelf).
Also (learned this in Spain), regular Olive Oil (if not mixed with other oils) is just a dark, unpurified grade with a more intense taste.
Thank you for this, my mom buys no name brand extra virgin olive oil and wanted to start taking that and lemon juice to help with inflammation but before she did that I wanted to make sure that it was pure olive oil that she was going to be taking, I’ve been searching for a couple of hours and so far no one could give a definitive result for that brand. I avoid seed oils like the plague, I tried to cook with only grass-fed beef tallow but even that one’s getting shifty now because you need to find grass-fed and grass finished because they can call it grass-fed if they finished the cow with grains to fatten it up more… Sad world we live in when the food that’s supposed to help us is made to harm us.