What should you be looking for when you buy olive oil?

Posted by Al Pryzbylski on January 18, 2014 0 Comments

Before spending your hard earned dollar, please ask several questions of the person selling you olive oil.

Minimally, your single varietal oil (grown and crushed at a single estate, not just a pile of olives accumulated from multiple sources) should have the following information available:

The specific variety of olive in the bottle, not just "Italian or Greek"

The date it was crushed, not bottled.

Several chemistry values that determine if the oil was extra virgin at time of crush. These chemistry attributes are: Oleic Acid, Free Fatty Acid, Polyphenol levels and Peroxide value. These and only these qualify an olive oil to be extra virgin and there are several international standards that are followed.

At Bella Gusta, our oils are Certified UP which is a designator for Ultra Premium. This certification exceeds every international standard for olive oil chemistry in every single category - period.

Please ask us any questions about this when you visit.

Alan