Just stumbled across this article claiming that 70% of extra-virgin olive oil sold today is cut with cheaper oils. http://www.foodrenegade.com/your-extravirgin-olive-oil-fake/ I haven't looked into it much yet, just thought I'd share.
Ever since getting on the health kick some few years ago I've switched almost entirely to olive and coconut for my veggie oils. However my dad insisted that sunflower oil was good especially when you didn't want the taste of the oil in the dish, and for higher temp stir frying. And that led to me reading up a bit more on oils since it had been some time since I read about them (mainly from Maffetone's book a few years ago). Of course I quickly found sunflower oil to be undesirable. Especially based on its high ratio of omega-6, but it still seems to pop up on some reports as being a good oil. Dad is just easily influenced by what some TV doctor claims to say, or something he hears on a pbs cooking show, and once he gets it in his mind he is very stubborn. He's also had heart problems and now suffers from congestive heart failure, so he is trying to be more healthy. Anyhow that is what caused me to stumble across that article. To be honest I'd mainly been buying Kroger's brand (grocery store) cold pressed EV olive oil and it was substantially cheaper than the rest when on sale. But now I wonder... if any oil is fake that is probably it. My dad had heard on TV about how California Olive Ranch oils were consistently ranked higher than any imported oil so he's switched to that and I also bought that last time. It was claimed that the foreign olive oil companies think us Americans are stupid and export their lowest grade olive oils, yet charge a premium. I don't doubt it, and the aforementioned article seems to go along with that. Its about double to triple the price of my store brand though. At least being a US company and producing and bottling their own oils they can't claim their suppliers have cut their oils without them knowing, I think. I'll be doing some more research when I'm in on the nightshifts at work.
For baking, when I don't want the flavor of olive oil, I'll have to bite the bullet and start using the more expensive coconut oils, or just switch back to butter or make ghee.
Ever since getting on the health kick some few years ago I've switched almost entirely to olive and coconut for my veggie oils. However my dad insisted that sunflower oil was good especially when you didn't want the taste of the oil in the dish, and for higher temp stir frying. And that led to me reading up a bit more on oils since it had been some time since I read about them (mainly from Maffetone's book a few years ago). Of course I quickly found sunflower oil to be undesirable. Especially based on its high ratio of omega-6, but it still seems to pop up on some reports as being a good oil. Dad is just easily influenced by what some TV doctor claims to say, or something he hears on a pbs cooking show, and once he gets it in his mind he is very stubborn. He's also had heart problems and now suffers from congestive heart failure, so he is trying to be more healthy. Anyhow that is what caused me to stumble across that article. To be honest I'd mainly been buying Kroger's brand (grocery store) cold pressed EV olive oil and it was substantially cheaper than the rest when on sale. But now I wonder... if any oil is fake that is probably it. My dad had heard on TV about how California Olive Ranch oils were consistently ranked higher than any imported oil so he's switched to that and I also bought that last time. It was claimed that the foreign olive oil companies think us Americans are stupid and export their lowest grade olive oils, yet charge a premium. I don't doubt it, and the aforementioned article seems to go along with that. Its about double to triple the price of my store brand though. At least being a US company and producing and bottling their own oils they can't claim their suppliers have cut their oils without them knowing, I think. I'll be doing some more research when I'm in on the nightshifts at work.
For baking, when I don't want the flavor of olive oil, I'll have to bite the bullet and start using the more expensive coconut oils, or just switch back to butter or make ghee.
