Tips & Tricks on how to pick a High-Quality EVOO: Dark or light bottle?

Hi Friends,

Welcome to our first education sub-stack article!

The intention here is to give you bite-size information for you to understand what to reach for in the supermarkets, and stores.

For our first series, we want to talk about cosmetics: when it comes to choosing a bottle: what should it look like? Light? Dark? Somewhere in-between?

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Question: Should an Extra-Virgin Olive Oil (“EVOO”) always come in a dark bottle?

Well, yes and no.

Like most things in life, nuance is important, so there is no one-fixed-rule.

Let’s talk about it.

Here is what we know to be true:

A true EVOO will carry with it high-polyphenols, and a low acidity (Free Fatty Acid (“FFA”) of below 0.8%). This is the true measure for an extra-virgin olive oil. (This is just a fancy way of saying it has low acidity, and low oxidation). If an olive oil is above 0.8% in Free Fatty Acid (“FFA”); it can no longer be called an EVOO.

Now, in order to achieve results such as this; a producer will go through immense pains to ensure their liquid gold is at the exact FFA that puts them in the EVOO category (below 0.8%FFA).

Polyphenols, and maintaining a low FFA % are extremely sensitive to light.

This takes us to our question: Would an EVOO be put in a clear bottle?

Answer: Unlikely, but not impossible.

Let us explain.

When olive oil is first pressed - it produces an almost synthetic highlighter green-colour.

Here is a photo of our first press:

On-top of Labneh

At this point of time, the olive oil is at its highest polyphenol count, and lowest FFA %. In order to ensure that this oil is well protected and preserved, it is highly likely that a producer will put the oil into a dark bottle in order to protect the precious oil from the sunlight to prolong it’s goodness.

Think of the olive oil as a vampire, the longer it is out of the sunlight, the longer it lives.

However, nuance is important as always!

Does this colour look familiar? Yep. That is the same highlighter green we saw above.

But, it’s in a clear bottle. Why?

Well, for many producers, the intense green you see is a badge of honour. It means, they produced a very high-quality item. It’s a badge you want to show off. What better way to show off than in a clear bottle!

The green colour here will last for between 2-8 weeks, thereafter, due to natural oxidisation, the oil will turn a yellow/golden hue. This is just nature, there is no way around it.

So, question: Can an EVOO be in a clear bottle?

Answer: Yes, it is possible, but highly unlikely. The one reason it would be in a clear bottle is if the producer is marketing the item right after they pressed the oil, this is because they want their customers to see the fruits of their labour.

Often, these type of EVOO with this colour, in the clear glass bottles, sell out within weeks. After that, the producer will place the oil into dark coloured bottles to preserve the shelf-life of the oil and prevent oxidisation.

Like we said at the begging of this article: life is full of nuance!

Summary: EVOO can be in a clear glass bottle. However, it is very unlikely for it to be. So, we would advise always reaching for a darker glass bottle. But, as you know, there are more tips and tricks to picking a true EVOO, so substance in the bottle is much more important than the glass on the outside!

Always look for the producer, the harvest date, the handling of the trees etc. These will be better indicators on the olive oil, more so than the outside shell!

We hope that this helped,

We look forward to providing more tips and tricks,

Let us know in the comments below how else we might help,

With love,

Beît Ballout

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