Know your olive oil

One of the most common scams involves the colouring of low-grade soya oil with industrial grade chlorophyll, which is then flavoured with beta carotene. This is then palmed off as extra virgin olive oil.

The more sophisticated scams are the ones where the oil has been doctored at the refinery itself with substances like hazelnut oil and with deodorised lamp-grade olive oil.

Interestingly, most of these adulterations are very difficult to detect even in a laboratory and thus the malpractices thrive. Honest growers of olives are finding it increasingly difficult to make a living.

Lest you get the impression that this is a modern practice, rest assured that the history of the olive oil trade is replete with tales of fraud. Of course I am not surprised by this long and dubious claim to distinction for the trade since the oil has for long had diverse usage in soaps, lotions, perfume bases and in lamp and furnace oils.

In earlier times, olive oil also had therapeutic uses too for stomach aches and heart ailments. This is endorsed by modern research and goes to show how accurate ancient knowledge and prescriptions were!

Next week: How to know the genuine oil

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