Quite so indeed. However, all is not hopeless, for Americans anyway. California (the Land of Fruits and Nuts) produces very good olive oil in recent times, and industry and government regulations and required analysis/authenticity certificates gives a higher level of confidence. So if the Italians can straighten out their mafia problems then fine, if not then California will continue to benefit. In the several reviews, independent lab analyis type assessments that I have read over the years, the California Ranch extra virgin cold extract (a specific brand) has come out at or near the top. There is nothing fancy involved in producing good olive oil. Just extract it without heat and solvents- through a mechanical press- then put it in the bottle- and dont put any extra shit in with it. Done. Mission accomplished. And that brand is sold in all the big box stores and chain supermarkets at about nine dollars/17 fl. ounces. Also, believe it or not, costco's kirkland organic extra virgin rates quite well too by actual composition analysis. A lot of the good olive oils rate poorly taste-wise because all the bogus ones are smoother and dont kick back because- well- they are not extra virgin olive oil which can bite back at you a little. Whatever. Or you can pay twenty dollars a bottle for a fancy bottle from Italy with a little tag hanging from the bottle that talks about the twelve generations who have grown olives and how the olives were picked by workers listening to Enya music out in the fields. Better not drink it though if you are allergic to peanut or sunflower oil. https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-california-olive-oil/
"Lab tests, the Olive Center said, found that 69 percent of imported brands sold as extra virgin didn’t meet international standards... Little mentioned in all the coverage was who funded it: California Olive Ranch, the California Olive Oil Council, and another California producer, Corto Olive. And the 69 percent figure wasn’t from chemical tests, but from a tasting panel."
Yeh. The funding is not necessarily the problem or the issue. It is whether the tests were done by independent labs. It common for most producers of a product to sponsor tests to show that product is better than their competitors and that is not a problem and all part of the marketing game. As long as the tests can be independently verified by anyone else who performs them. And there are different levels of testing. One is to at least confirm whether you have 100% olive oil. And I cannot replay all the various studies I have glanced at over the years, but have not seen any that show any foreign oils in with the california ranch olive oils, but I will look at that if so. Next is testing of whether it actually meets a loosely defined standard of "extra virgin." My understanding is that some of the california ranch oils pass and some dont. Which does not mean that they are not 100% olive oil, it just means that some of their brands within their line are thinner that what the standard is for a first press. So for a grocery store offering, I still think it gets you into real olive oil- versus fraud oil at a reasonable price. From there, you can get scientific and test and look for hydrotyrosol and oleocanthol leves etc. Quite a few of the higher quality california oils have twice the hydro and oleo content as california ranch BUT at twice the price. I prefer to get the lower cost because I can use it for cooking too without it getting too pricey. And then just double up on itwhen I am taking a shot for nutritional purposes. Anyway, starting point, is to least have 100% olive oil that has some content of hydro and oleo and go from there. If you have sunflower oil colored with chlorophyll, then that dog dont hunt. You cant get there from here if that is the case. https://www.oliveoiltimes.com/phenolic-compounds-olive-oils-bought-california
I just bought this very highly rated olive oil from Sicily on Amazon because I want to compare the quality of it with a California brand I have in my pantry. I'm going to do a blind test on my wife and see if she can tell the difference.
I read somewhere that a good extra virgin olive oil will have a fruity odor. When I opened my first bottle of California Olive Ranch extra virgin, there was a fruity aroma. In all the years I had been buying other brands (the popular ones), not 1 bottle ever had that aroma. IMO, the flavor is far better than any I've tried, and the harvest date is on the bottle. I decided to switch after reading that one major brand (the one I was previously using) claimed they had been unaware that some of the oil they were getting from Italy was not extra virgin, and as mentioned above, not pure olive, but mixed with other oils. After reading several reviews of different brands, I settled on California Olive Ranch. I'm glad I did. I also buy extra virgin avocado oil from California, the brand is Calpure. I get that from amazon. No one around here carries that brand that I'm aware of. Now if only my misto can wouldn't clog so easy with the olive oil...
Add Walmarts house brand to the blind test - Great Value Olive Oil I like a lot of the Great Value products.