OLIVE OIL: NATURE’S MIRACLE

2018 – 2019 season of olive’s journey, one of the nature’s best gift to humanity, to transform into olive oil began. This year's harvest is expected to hit 1.5 million tons. While 423 thousand tons will be used as olives and 1 million 77 thousand tons for olive oil. 193 thousand tons olive oil is expected to come out of that.

The experts are pointing out that improper storing of olive oil results in decrease of the quality and nutritional benefits of olive oil. Asst. Prof. Mine Güngörmüşler, from Department of Food Engineering, Izmir University of Economics (IUE), pointed out that due to being stored in plastic bottles or transparent glass bottles, olive oil gets subject to light and heat; it loses its nutritional values because of foul odor and taste. Güngörmüşler pointed out that olive oil should not be stored in plastic bottles or transparent glass bottles, and should be kept away from sunlight. “We often see that olive oil is sold in plastic bottles. When not cleaned thoroughly, these bottles cause microbial reproduction, which in return, causes olive oil to go bad very quickly. Therefore, we should not consume unbranded olive oil sold in plastic bottles.”

Güngörmüşler indicated that people were often unaware of information such as when it was produced, its acidity, storing conditions, or whether it was pure or not. She said that it was also known that vast majority of this unbranded olive oil was adulterated.

‘Opt for tinted glass bottles’

Asst. Prof. Güngörmüşler, who pointed that olive oil package should include must-know information such as the brand name, enterprise registration number, date of production and expiration, etc., stated the following:

“Heat, air, light, water, or humidity are the enemies of oil. It is best to store it in tinted glass containers, away from sunlight and humidity at a room temperature around 150 centigrade. When the chlorophyll in olive oil stored in transparent glass bottle is exposed to sunlight, oxidation and rancidity occurs and that leaves a bad taste in your mouth. Therefore, the best storage containers for olive oil are made of either tinted glass (to keep out light), a nonreactive metal, such as stainless steel, or porcelains.”