Re:The Adulteration of Italian Olive Oil
by busterarm on Sunday January 26, 2014 @11:32PM
(#7128822)
sunflower and safflower oils, the two most commonly substituted oils for olive oil (as far as counterfeiting goes), have a similar or _much lower_ smoke point than olive oil in an unrefined state. 225F, in fact. That's almost 100 degrees lower than olive oil.
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Re:The Adulteration of Italian Olive Oil
by crazygringo on Sunday January 26, 2014 @11:44PM
(#7128862)
If they used unrefined sunflower or safflower oil, then your olive oil would wind up with a lot of flavor of those oils, since unrefined oil is very flavorful. They would seem like horrible choices for adulteration, since it would be so obvious. I mean, maybe I'm wrong, but do you have a source on that? I'm genuinely curious.
On the other hand, refined sunflower and safflower oil have higher smoke points than EVOO, and the flavor loss due to refining would let them blend in.
Re:The Adulteration of Italian Olive Oil
by busterarm on Sunday January 26, 2014 @11:45PM
(#7128870)
What? Safflower oil is flavorless. As for sources, there've been various articles about olive oil adulteration over the years...including one really long one from a few years ago that was popular on most aggregator sites - think it was also an NYT article.