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Olive Oil gone bad??


quiet girl

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I bought a 3L tin of OO for 11.99 at the grocery store. It said imported from Italy, thought it was a great deal. Once I got it home and opened it, it smelled very sweet, but not a nice sweet smell IMO, completely different from any other OO's I've smelled before. I made 2 bathches of soap with it. The first one was with peppermint EO, worked out great, but the second was with a FO, and it totally morphed and the smell of the soap really stinks to me... could this oil be expired, and sabotaging my soap?

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Olive oil produced for American tastes tends to be much milder than that produced for European tastes. In my experience (as my husband is of Italian decent we eat a lot of Italian olive oil) Italian olive oil (especially the extra virgin) tends to be on the bitter side, almost acidic tasting. I have been assured that this does not affect the SAP of the oil.

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The words “extra virgin” and “virgin” are meaningless when it comes to olive oil packaged here in the US. The USDA classifications of olive oil are "Fancy", "Choice", "Standard", and "Substandard". Packagers like to add “extra virgin” to the lable to jack the price up, but it can be any grade of oil. I believe that Italy (being a member of the International Olive Oil Council) requires any package labled “olive oil” to be pure olive oil. If the oil was imported from Italy then packaged here it could be a blend, though I thought it was requred to declare that on the front lable. If it was packaged in Italy then imported it would be pure olive oil. As quiet girl didn’t indicate there is anything wrong with the soap it’s self, it’s just the smell that’s off (which a blend wouldn't have affected) I would guess it’s pure oilive oil. I am wondering if it could be refined grade oil, which in Italy often has artificial flavors added to make it taste like virgin olive oil. I wonder if the flaverings could have messed with the FO.

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Thank you all for your input..... I'm looking at the tin right now, and it says 100% pure olive oil, imported from Italy.... it was packaged in NY state, I didn't see any american rating on the oil like GA was talking about. It is true that OO is expensive, this tin wasn't, that's why I suspected that it was expired when I smelled a very different oder, but since it doesn't reak... then I suppose it must be ok, Thank you again! Melissa

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With no USFDA rating I guess it was packaged under EU authority. The laws concerning this confuse me. I know that under certain conditions a company can be given permission to be almost like a little embassy in regards to the laws regulating labeling. In this case “100% Olive Oil” means it is made from a blend, probably virgin and refined olive oil. Still all olive oil, just different grades. This kind of oil is usually made from lower quality olives. Not as nice to cook with, especially if you want a traditional taste (you wouldn’t want to serve this oil to an Italian with feta or bread) but would still make great soap. I was surprised when I saw the title of this thread; since, with all the antioxidants it contains, I think the shelf life of olive oil is about 100 years. Ok, that’s an exaggeration, but it is very stable. A year and half ago, while cleaning out the kitchen (getting ready to pull out the old cabinets) we found a bottle of olive oil that had been opened 3 ½ years earlier. Still good. We used it that year for the feast of the seven fishes. Well, unless it’s exposed to high temperatures (above 250F I think, may be higher) or contaminated (as in from cooking). Do you know 3 ½ oz of olive oil contains a full days recommended allowance of vitamin E? Also vitamin A and about 8 other classes of antioxidants. Why it makes such glorious soap, and why it cures so slowly.

Ok, I guess I have waxed lyrical on olive oil long enough. Enough to know olive oil is good both for your insides and outsides. And to think 30 years ago some people wanted to outlaw it in the country…

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