Lab tests have just come in for this year's oils in AVLAKI's portfolio: acidity 0.2, 0.35, 0.38 - and verified 'Extra Virgin' with full chemical and organoleptic analysis by the International Olive Oil Council approved lab in Athens. Hurrah! VERY important these days when so much of so-called cheap 'Extra Virgin' on sale in the shops is far from extra-virgin, nearly always very nasty tasting, even rancid, and is often discovered to have other oils in the bottle that have never seen an olive.
When supermarkets have shelves of such 'extra virgin' oils on sale at £2 for 500ml, rats start to smell.
Saw the tail end of a TV programme last night about health and food - 'Trust me I'm a doctor (I think the title) and the presenter ended her analysis of the benefits of all sorts of oils by saying that 2 tablespoons of olive oil a day is very good for you ….BUT went on to say that it didn't matter what quality of oil….. even the cheapest is OK. Wrong. Bad oil as in the supermarket cheapest (see above), or rancid oil, or very elderly oil badly stored, doesn't do anything much good (maybe furniture) and actually can make food taste disgusting.
And if you go for 'light' or 'refined' oils or anything described as simply 'olive oil' you are ingesting a product that is extracted with chemicals from the junk left after milling the olives which is then cleaned up with any number of further chemical processes.
But food writers indicate simply 'olive oil' week after week in their recipes.