Extra Virgin - which means this inscription on an oil bottle

Extra Virgin - which means this inscription on an oil bottle

"Extra virgin" is a characteristic used formarking the quality of olive oil. It is based on determining the value of one of the main parameters of this useful food product - acidity.

Extra Virgin - which means this inscription on an oil bottle

Extra virgin oil

Olive oil is a very valuable food,which contains a large number of useful unsaturated fatty acids. Scientists say that their regular consumption of food contributes to the activation of purification processes in the body, reduces the level of cholesterol and thereby prevents the development of atherosclerosis and other cardiovascular diseases. However, it should be borne in mind that not every olive oil possesses such properties. The fact is that to date, there are various technologies for its production, including those in which the olive raw materials are subjected to heating, chemicals and other factors that significantly reduce the usefulness of the finished product. Therefore, in order to be able to distinguish Among themselves varieties of olive oil, created with the use of various technologies, the international community of manufacturers have developed special names for each of them. So, the cheapest and low-quality oil is made of their olive oil cake, which was once squeezed out: it is usually designated with the label "Pomace olive oil". Refined oil, referred to as "Refined", undergoes additional chemical cleaning, so that it can be used for frying, but it loses some of its useful properties. The most high-quality and useful olive oil made from olives by the first cold pressing method is called "Virgin": in the process of making it, the raw material never heats above 27oC. In this case, the "Extra virgin" label is assigned to those varieties of Virgin , which satisfy strict expert requirements for the acidity of the finished product: the acid content in olive oil of the variety "Extra virgin" should not exceed 1%. Some companies, famous for particularly stringent requirements for the quality of their oil, set the limit value of the acidity of the oil at 0.8%.

Extra virgin oil grades

At the same time, oils of the category "Extra virgin"Can also differ from each other. So, on the label of this oil, you can see a reference to the fact that it is one-grade or blended: this means that such oil is produced from olives of one or different kinds, respectively. In this case, the best oil of the "Extra virgin" category is the product marked D.O.P. (Denominacion de origen protegida). This marking is used to refer to a product produced in a particular region, with the oil being pressed directly at the place of collection of olives that are not damaged during transport.