FRAUD!!! The olive oil you are using might be fake, please read!

[ZerbyPirkel]

BEWARE OLIVE OIL FRAUD (in USA)

Olive oil is something that I want to start making myself. Since I saw the report on 60 Minutes on how our olive oil is adulterated - (they take sunflower oil and put chlorophyll in it to give it the green color) - I am thinking of using other oils until I get my olive oil press. I am making my own avocado oil today. That is so much fun! If I make my own olive oil, I will know that it is pure. The last time I bought olive oil, it didn't taste right. After the 60 Minutes report, I know why, and I won't buy it off the shelf. Take a look here as to why I am so concerned: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minut...buy-olive-oil/ and http://www.oliveoiltimes.com/tag/olive-oil-fraud and http://realfoodforlife.com/which-oli...ive-oil-fraud/. You know, this is so important to those of us that use oils, we need to let others that are soapers know about this, if it is not known by all, already.

Have any of you had less than desirable results when using olive oil? Maybe it wasn't really olive oil?

 

[Obsidian]

This is pretty common knowledge on the board but thank you for bring it up, newer members might not be aware. Many members use kirkland OO from costco, it one of the few brands in the US that tested 100% pure and its a good price.

I don't use much OO in my soaps anymore, don't really like the qualities it brings so I just use cheap pomace from the grocery store now. I'm not concerned with purity since I only make soap for family and no one has any allergies to worry about.

 

[shunt2011]

Yes, common knowledge here. . I use OO from Costco and have been doing so for years and no issues. It was one that was actually the real thing. I don't use a large amount but no issues. It's important to know where you are getting it.

 

[IrishLass]

Ditto what Obsidian and Shari said ^^^^, but it's a good reminder for the sake of our new soap-makers who might not be 'in the know'.

For what it's worth, I've been using the Kirkland OO from Costco in my soaps for the past 10 years with excellent results.


IrishLass

 

[ZerbyPirkel]

This is pretty common knowledge on the board but thank you for bring it up, newer members might not be aware. Many members use kirkland OO from costco, it one of the few brands in the US that tested 100% pure and its a good price.

I don't use much OO in my soaps anymore, don't really like the qualities it brings so I just use cheap pomace from the grocery store now. I'm not concerned with purity since I only make soap for family and no one has any allergies to worry about.

Thank you for the vote on Costco. Even though I want to make my own, it's awesome knowing that there still are great places to find it!

 

[grassyriver]

Chiming in and agreeing with everyone else. I use a lot of olive oil and Costco Kirkland has been great. I get it from

Amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00E4PZ3KE/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

or Jet https://jet.com/product/Kirkland-Si...-Oil-2-Count/8a2423906f93443eb7904f5deeb4ce8d

 

[gdawgs]

Ah, I wasn't aware of this. So if you get the fake stuff, does the Ingredients list say olive oil or does is say sunflower oil on it??

 

[Obsidian]

It will just say olive oil, its a pretty big scam.

 

[cmzaha]

Some will call it an Olive Oil Blend. Either Costco, Sam's or both sell an olive oil blend and Smart & Final also sells one. Those do state it is a blend, but I have also heard that some do not make it known. I have been using Costco pure olive oil for about 7 yrs because of price and the color of the olive oil which is very light yellowish

 

[IrishLass]

Apart from the oils Carolyn mentioned ^^, much of the fake stuff will actually say Olive Oil on it, which means that it's impossible to tell if it's real or fake just by reading the label.

Also (just in case anybody has read about these simple home tests on certain blogs), the 'refrigerator test' and the 'candle test' are completely unreliable, so forget about trying those.

Apart from buying from a trustworthy source, the only way to tell for sure that your olive oil is real is by chemical analysis......or maybe perhaps by soaping it...but you first have to be familiar with how the real stuff turns out in soap to be able to know if your oil is a counterfeit...... but even if you can tell it's fake by soaping it, you'll probably never know what other kind of oil it was, or what other oil(s) with which it was cut.

Which brings up a point I've been curious about regarding the oleic colloid (slime/snot) that typically forms on the surface of 100% olive oil soaps when they get wet. Every single batch of 100% olive oil soap I've ever made produces copious amounts of the stuff when wet (which I would expect if the olive oil is the genuine deal), but in several of the 100% Castile threads that we've had on the forum, a good handful of soapers have said that they've never experienced any slime. It just makes me wonder if the olive oil they used may have been tainted in some way.

Here's a pic of one of my 100% olive oil soaps (made with the Costo Kirkland OO) exhibiting the typical amount of oleic colloid (aka slime/snot) when wet:

For what it's worth- the soap above was 4-years old, and was completely bone dry just 30-seconds to a minute before I took the pic (i.e, it had not been sitting in water). I had only just wet it to lather up with it for the pic.


IrishLass

 

[Arimara]

I made a whole bunch of castiles using that dual lye method DeeAnna mentioned in another thread. I guess I will test most of my soaps out, save the lye heavy ones. I might wait a year for them.

 

[Relle]

We don't have that issue here in Oz re - the olive oil.

 

[Susie]

I buy the Daily Chef OO from Sam's. It is probably not pure OO, but it is consistent in how it soaps. So, I am going to continue to use it as there is no Costco in my town.