Comment on Supermarkets in Spain are inflating olive oil prices, farmers claim

• AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  refined olive oil

  What does that even mean?

  There’s two types of olive oil: pressed from olives, and definitely not olive oil.

  The amount of snake oil in the US food industry is unbelievable.

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  • CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    from what I understand, there are essentially three levels of olive oil:

    • Extra Virgin Olive Oil: the good stuff, used primarily as a taste additive, dressings, etc.
    • Refined Olive Oil: the cheap stuff, typically mashed olives that make it out of EEVO. You’ll use this for frying
    • Blended Olive Oil: medium priced, usually a blend of EEVO and refined

    That isn’t to say that olive oil doesn’t need better controls and oversight.

    There is no reason to buy EEVO when refined will do. I use the cheap stuff for making mayonnaise because it blends better. In fact, if you try to use EEVO for mayonnaise, it will turn rancid.

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    • AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      from what I understand, there are essentially three levels of olive oil:

      Extra Virgin Olive Oil: the good stuff, used primarily as a taste additive, dressings, etc.
      Refined Olive Oil: the cheap stuff, typically mashed olives that make it out of EEVO. You’ll use this for frying
      Blended Olive Oil: medium priced, usually a blend of EEVO and refined
      

      From what I understand, it went like this:

      • “Hey, what’s all this goop on the floor?”
      • “It’s all the crap from the olives we pressed this morning… Hey, Mario, come and wipe this off!”
      • “Wait wait, can’t we sell this?”
      • “Are you crazy? Who would want to buy olive goop?”
      • “Let me think about it… Mario, put it in barrels.”

      And that’s how most of the US food shittification went. People got used to it and it’s normal to them.

      Meanwhile in Europe, there’s no “refined olive oil” to be found. Like many of the creative aberrations of the US market, they’re completely absent in the rest of the developed world.

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  • penquin@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Refined means the oil gets processed to neutralize defects in taste, aroma, or acidity.It’s still olive oil, but it’s treated so your food doesn’t taste like olive oil when you cook it with. That’s all. It’s not snake oil. Lol

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• KevonLooney@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  You know Costco isn’t squeezing the olives themselves? There’s a lot of fake olive oil out there. They just blend in some vegetable oil or something.

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