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In my previous article titled ‘Testing your olive oil with Dr. Oz, the Fridge Test”, I have discussed a simple test that can be conducted from home to determine whether your olive oil is really pure or not. Dr. Oz advised his viewers to put their extra virgin olive oil in the refrigerator, if it solidifies it means the olive oil is pure. He also cautioned that the test is not 100% foolproof.
However, since the broadcasting of this episode, a number of reactions have emerged denouncing the validity of this test. Among them, the North American Olive Oil Association described the test as ‘completely false and misleading’.
To clarify all this confusion, the University of California Olive Center recently conducted a study to determine once and for all the validity of the ‘Fridge Test’. The results of the experiment were very clear; the ‘Fridge Test’ is an unreliable indicator of the quality of the olive oil. After putting seven samples of different oils in a laboratory refrigerator for 60 hours, none of them showed any sign of congealing. “Even after 180 hours, the samples never fully solidified”.
Determining the quality of the oil from home is apparently not so easy. We all want to avoid being duped in our olive oil, however it is clear that ‘Fridge test’ will not provide us with this protection. Maybe in the future some other test will appear that are be reliable and approved by experts.
The Book of Olive 