Display shelves at the premises of the Oil Merchant in London
As the amazing range of health benefits from including plenty of extra virgin olive oil in everyday cooking is becoming more and more apparent, I am increasingly being asked “what is best olive oil to buy?“ This is not an easy question to answer. Am I being asked which oils are considered by the experts to be of the highest quality in terms of taste and flavour or which oils offer the most health benefits? You might think that these would be the same but not necessarily so. For example, chemical components, such as polyphenols, that contribute to the health benefits of olive oil can also change the balance of the tasting experience.
So how do you identify the best oils to buy from the confusing array of bottles on the shelves? It can be a struggle to identify the best oils from the packaging alone. Though some labels may show details of varieties or producers’ names and awards that have been won or, occasionally polyphenol content, labelling does not usually help very much. However, the American on-line Olive Oil Times has come to the rescue with the Olive Oil Times World Ranking, a new and innovative tool to help consumers find the best olive oils. It is an app that uses artificial intelligence to identify top-ranked olive oils from a simple picture of the bottle. It uses a vast database of information compiled from the NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition, the world’s largest olive oil quality contest. It is updated in real-time and lists the most-awarded producers and brands with detailed historical results data by hemisphere, country, cultivar and organic classification.
Introducing the new the app Curtis Cord, the editor-in-chief of Olive Oil Times and the President of the World Olive Oil Competition says “Consumers gain access to a decade of accumulated knowledge about thousands of brands with this app. By simply taking a picture of a bottle, users can instantly access detailed information about its quality, origin, and flavour profile.”
This tool will undoubtedly be very useful for a lot of people but it has its limitations. Only the oils that have been entered into the World Olive Oil Competition will feature on the app. There are plenty of oils which are excellent but which have not been entered, not least because of the cost of entry. It should also be borne in mind that the health benefits of an oil are not part of the judging criteria which do not currently take into account the polyphenol levels of an oil.
Finally and perhaps most importantly, however highly it is judged you simply might not like the taste of a particular oil. Provided there are no faults present there is no right and wrong about the style or taste of an oil. You either like it or you don’t. This personal preference is very important. Olive oil is not a medicine that you might take regardless of its taste. To get the full benefits of olive oil you need to use it regularly and you will not do this if you do not enjoy it.
You can find this app to use on mobile devices by visiting oliveoilranking.org and downloading the free app. It is simplicity itself to use. Simply tap the camera icon and take a picture of the olive oil bottle and see the brand’s quality ranking.