What's with the Olive Oil Imposters

Once you go Paleo there are some things that become essential staples around the house.  While olive oil is pretty popular in general it is a must for Paleo households.  We cook with it, put it on eggs, put it on salads, put it on just about anything.  Good olive oil with some salt and spices is just plain heavenly. Olive oil is so good that it has become big business and with big business comes profit, marketing, cost cutting, and sometimes fraud. The news over the last few months has been flooded with stories about the prevalence of counterfeit olive oil. This piece Extra Virgin Suicide - NYTimes.com gives an entertaining high level on the problem. UC Davis clearly puts a lot of research into olives and in a 2010 study found that 69% of imported extra-virgin olive oils bought in California supermarkets including some very popular brands failed to meet international standards. The worst part of all this is the olive oil you thought was healthy is in many cases the exact same omega-6 laden highly refined oil you were trying to avoid.  

From my high level scrub of the news and research it seems the best way to ensure your olive oil is pure is to either stick with oil that is produced in the US or do a little extra work to verify that a specific olive oil has a seal of approval from a bonafide independent testing organization.  If you want to dive deeper into this rabbit hole, search for "olive oil" on Google News and you will find dozens of articles calling out specific brands good and bad.  

We have decided to give Trader Joe's California Estate Olive Oil a try. It is reasonably priced and was referenced in numerous articles as one that passed the purity tests.  We'll let you know what we think.  

Thanks for stopping by!
Chuck

Photo 1:Wikipedia Olive Tree
Photo 2: Trader Joe's

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/10/21/4925146/how-extra-virgin-is-your-olive.html#storylink=cpy