The Consumer’s
Guide to Buying
Olive Oil
The Original Super Food
When we gather around the table with a dish of freshly pressed olive oil for dipping bread and vegetables, it becomes a catalyst for fresh conversation and wonderful meals. It also brings us better nutrition, helping us to absorb nutrients from other foods. Read this guide and you’ll discover three qualities to seek when you buy olive oil—one
simple step to a healthier diet.
It’s not easy to find the right olive oil. Why? Because you’re bombarded with misleading advertising, confusing claims and bad information. We created this guide to buying olive oil as an educational service to consumers, to help you better understand what you are buying. Considered the original super food, olive oil has a rich and colorful history. Edible olives were grown in ancient Crete in 3,500 BC, and Romans started cultivating olive groves to harvest olive oil in about 600 BC. Olives have been cultivated around the Mediterranean for thousands of years from Greek and Roman times.
Spain is by far the world’s largest producer of olive oil. We produce Veritat Oli d’Oliva in the Priorat region, just south of Barcelona, because it is the best place to produce it. Veritat Oli d’Oliva brings you premium quality, freshly pressed extra-virgin olive oil from a co-op of 40 farms in the mountains of Catalonia, in Priorat. Our extra-virgin olive oil is pressed, stored and bottled throughout the year at the 100-year-old village mill and shipped directly to the U.S, ensuring peak freshness in every bottle.
Three qualities to seek when you buy olive oil:
Three steps to choosing the best olive oil:
You may have heard media reports that made you wonder about the quality of the olive oil on your dinner table. If you want to be sure you are getting the purest, best quality olive oil, look for an olive oil with these three qualities:
- FRESH-ness: Olive oil is the juice of the crushed fruit
from the olive tree, with the water removed. Unlike
wine, olive oil does not improve with age. Olive oil
should always have a pressing AND bottling date. To
enjoy the maximum health benefits, consume your
oil within a year of the bottling date. The color of olive oil
does not matter. Olive oil tastings are traditionally done with
blue glassware to avoid influencing the taster’s opinion, rather than to preserve the color. - FRESH great taste: At its ideal freshness, olive oil
is a flavorful treat and has a bit of a “bite.” This lets
you know that there are antioxidants present in the
oil and is still ”alive” and brimming with the nutrition
your body craves. - FRESH 100% olive oil - undiluted: Purchase a brand
that is not diluted with other oils, such as canola.
Check the label! It should say:
1. Where it is from
2. Which type of olive it is made from
3. Whether it is a blend or a varietal
4. Date it was harvested
5. Date it was bottled and from where (provenance)
- Look for premium 100% extra-virgin olive oil. Extra-virgin
olive oil is mechanically pressed, not created
through a chemical process. In the past, it was
important for the consumer to know whether the olives
were cold pressed or not. That was because it’s
important to maintain a certain temperature of the
olives throughout the process to maintain the long
chain fatty acids. With modern machinery, all olive
oil is cold pressed and the temperature of the olives
and the oil is maintained at 70-72 degrees Fahrenheit
thus ensuring high nutritional content. - Make sure your olive oil is really fresh. Look for a
label that not only tells when it was harvested and
bottled but also its provenance! - Find an olive oil with wonderful flavor, so you enjoy
every drop. There are lots of great oils out there. In
their book The Olive Oil Diet, Simon Poole, MD, and
co-author Judy Ridgway claim
that the oil produced in smaller
batches is more likely to have
higher levels of polyphenols
(the most important set of antioxidants
present in extra-virgin
olive oil) than mass produced
olive oils.
Why you want the freshest olive oil
When olive oil is at its ideal freshness, it brings it maximum flavor and health benefits:
Better heart health. The monounsaturated fatty acids
in olive oil may help lower your risk of heart disease by lowering low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels.1
Improved blood sugar control. Some research indicates olive oil promotes better insulin levels and blood sugar control.2
Anti-cancer effects. Research shows that olive oil reduces the risk of breast cancer and provides protection from colon cancer.
One simple step to
a healthier diet
Olive oil is a GOOD fat; it is HEALTHY fat and won’t make you fat if consumed in moderation. Commit to
eating 2 tablespoons of olive oil a day as a substitute for other fats, such as canola or corn oil.
The longer you incorporate olive oil into your diet, the more you will enjoy the cumulative health benefits.
100% no-risk guarantee
Put Veritat Oli d’Oliva at the heart of your dinner table today. The tastiness of Veritat Oli d’Oliva is complex, with grassy tones, mixed herbs, and luscious lettuce leaves and sorrel, ending with a pop of peppery goodness.
This ‘pop’ is what tells you it’s fresh and abundant in nutrients. Consuming 2 tbsp. per day can lead to a very happy body. We guarantee that what is in every bottle is pure 100% extra-virgin olive oil from one variety of Arbequina olives from the Priorat region of Spain. If you purchase our extra-virgin olive oil and are not satisfied for any reason, we will refund your money and shipping charges.
Explore more! Discover a host of delicious ways you can enjoy olive oil as part of your family’s daily diet, learn about the health benefits, read the Veritat story, visit the groves with us, and find answers by visiting us at www.VERITATOLIDOLIVA.com.
