Pomace; and The Truth about olive oil

[teuchter]

Olive oil. If you look in a mainstream UK supermarket your options tend to be regular or extra virgin.

However it is my observation that if you go into a shop whose custom largely comes from people with origins in the parts of the world where olive oil is, as it were, used natively, then often most of the options are in fact olive pomace oil. Sometimes there'll be no "pure" olive oil at all, or if there is, it'll be one of the mainstream European brands that you also see in the supermarket.

So, is this pomace stuff the terrible chemically derived harmful-for-some-reason substance that certain slightly unreliable lookig websites want to tell me it is?

Or is "extra virgin olive oil" the real scam here?

 

[Orang Utan]

It’s fine

 

[dessiato]

Olive oil. If you look in a mainstream UK supermarket your options tend to be regular or extra virgin.

However it is my observation that if you go into a shop whose custom largely comes from people with origins in the parts of the world where olive oil is, as it were, used natively, then often most of the options are in fact olive pomace oil. Sometimes there'll be no "pure" olive oil at all, or if there is, it'll be one of the mainstream European brands that you also see in the supermarket.

So, is this pomace stuff the terrible chemically derived harmful-for-some-reason substance that certain slightly unreliable lookig websites want to tell me it is?

Or is "extra virgin olive oil" the real scam here?

Living where I do we have a vast amount of different olive oils available. There are light and dark coloured ones, high grade gourmet, everyday ones, cold pressed, virgen, etc etc. You get the idea. The range and quality generally available in the U.K. is very poor. I try to take back good grade artisan oils from local producers when I go back. The flavours are so different, it’s a little like wine in that each producer’s oil has its own flavour, colour and acidity.

Virgin, and extra virgin, are indicators of production in that the very first press is, usually, extra virgin, second press is usually exactly that. “Olive oil” is likely to be steamed to squeeze every last drop of oil out. In my opinion the best is the first, cold pressed oil. And if you can get the oil before it has been filtered and before it has been blended it has the purest flavour. It is best for eating on good bread, without anything being added. (If you freeze it you can spread it like butter, then it melts into the bread...)

I’m learning a lot about olive oil here, including that a lot of Italian oil is blended with Spanish oil, and sold as Italian when it really isn’t.

 

[nogojones]

Olive oil. If you look in a mainstream UK supermarket your options tend to be regular or extra virgin.

However it is my observation that if you go into a shop whose custom largely comes from people with origins in the parts of the world where olive oil is, as it were, used natively, then often most of the options are in fact. Sometimes there'll be no "pure" olive oil at all, or if there is, it'll be one of the mainstream European brands that you also see in the supermarket.

So, is this pomace stuff the terrible chemically derived harmful-for-some-reason substance that certain slightly unreliable lookig websites want to tell me it is?

Or is "extra virgin olive oil" the real scam here?

It's just the cheepest gear, the extraction from the pomace to get the oil out with unspecified solvents don't sound great to me. I'll use the the cheapest EV I can find for day to day use - Lidl seems best locally and the best I can afford or find for dipping, dressing and the like. If I was really broke I'd still skirt the pomace and use sunflower

I got caught out in our local Chinese supermarket on a big bottle of sesame oil, that on reading the smaller print it was only 20% sesame oil, so I guess it's the same sort of rules. Companies will sell anything they can get away with and sometimes people just ain't got the cash so they buy it

 

[trabuquera]

Pomace is filth - I wouldn't touch it, honestly.

 

[19sixtysix]

Standards for olive oil here Olive oil