How to find out if the olive oil you buy is really healthy: an expert answers

Olive oil is believed to have a positive effect on human health. However, in fact, the benefits of this product depend on the method of harvesting olives, as well as their further storage and processing.

In an interview with Mirror, Dr. Tassos Kyriakides, an associate professor of biostatistics at the Yale School of Public Health in New Haven, Connecticut, told whether olive oil is really as healthy as it is commonly believed.

According to him, the benefits of olive oil depend on many factors, as well as the components that make up its composition. The basis of olive oil is oleic acid, whose undeniable benefits have long been proven. There are also some factors to consider when purchasing this product.

Olive harvesting and processing

The best oil, the expert says, is the one made from softly harvested very green olives that are not yet fully ripe. Such olives contain a higher concentration of useful components.

The time it takes for olives to go from harvest to processing is also important. The faster it happens, the better the oil will be. Some companies have special mobile mills that process olives within two hours of harvesting. Such oil is considered the best, as the risk of oxidation or fermentation of the fruit due to too long a period of downtime after harvesting is minimized. The expert notes that no more than a few days should pass between the date of harvest and the date of processing.

Methods of oil storage and its freshness

To find out exactly how and how quickly the company harvests olives and processes them into oil, you can find a QR code on each bottle. By scanning it, you can get all the necessary information about the methods of harvesting products.

Experts recommend paying special attention to the dates of harvest, processing, and bottling, as well as the "use by" date to get the freshest oil. The best choice is a bottle of oil that takes no more than three months to get from the place of preparation to the store shelf.

In addition, the International Olive Council recommends that brands limit the shelf life to no more than two years after bottling. That is, if the brand's bottle indicates that the harvest season was "23/24," this means that the harvest lasted from late 2023 to early 2024.