Best Olive oil brands

When you are eating healthy you don't get extra points for eating "healthiest".

Cold pressed has a stronger taste than regular olive oil. They have different uses.

Trader Joe's California Estate that is cold pressed and unfiltered.

I like getting Colavita .. not sure if it's legit but it's what I buy

gamerbabe14 wrote: »

Don't know about healthiest, pretty sure they're similar, but in terms of taste, there's many evoo's that aren't exactly virgin. But buy oils in a dark bottle or tin so it doesn't spoil. I actually buy mine from Italy because I'm a *kitten* snob. The California Olive Ranch is pretty good though if you're in the US. Kirkland actually has good evoo also!!

California Olive Ranch is my go-to brand which is also pretty available in local stores. I see another poster mentioned Trader Joes has a California OO also - I'll have to check that out (I'm not a regular TJ shopper).

Besides being a decent OO, COR satisfies me for actually being olive oil. I've got a daughter with severe peanut allergy, and need to ensure the oil I'm using is really what it says it is and not adulterated with other oils. There are a bazillion reports available (check Google) on "olive oil fraud" that include some of the well known brands from overseas. I always check for country of origin, and if not US, I just don't buy any longer, unless I somehow know the product is OK. US at least has a semi-working inspection/verification system.

I've done the "refrigerator test" on COR and a bunch of other common EVOO brands and California does get cloudy as expected. I know this isn't a rigorous test as a good lab would do, or completely reliable, but no other common brand got cloudy (notice I'm not using brand names, but you'd know them).

strongerbytheday wrote: »

I read something a few years ago that in the U.S. there are many counterfeit olive oils and at the time Kirkland was testing as high quality and legit oil. So I've been buying that ever since. I haven't looked into it recently though.

The International Olive Oil Council, which is established by the United Nations has questioned the validity of the findings of the UC Davis olive oil study that hit the press so broadly. The UC-Davis research did not use the standardized methods for testing olive oils and overestimated the levels of contamination according to the IOC. Our supermarket shelves in the US are not as rife with fake olive oils as the press would have you believe.

From IOC Chemistry expert group: "...The UC Davis report claims that cheap refined oil was added to the oils; however, all the parameters (stigmastadienes and sterol composition) that detect the addition of this type of oil were within the limits. Consequently, they cannot conclude that refined oils were added."

If you want to read more from the IOC on this go to their web site http://www.internationaloliveoil.org and search 'Davis'.