36 Facts About Olive oil

Olive oil is a liquid fat obtained from olives, a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin, produced by pressing whole olives and extracting the oil.

Olive oil trees have been grown around the Mediterranean since the 8th millennium BC.

Olive oil has long been a common ingredient in Mediterranean cuisine, including ancient Greek and Roman cuisine.

Besides food, olive oil has been used for religious rituals, medicines, as a fuel in oil lamps, soap-making, and skincare application.

From its beginnings early in the 7th century BC, the cosmetic use of olive oil quickly spread to all of the Hellenic city-states, together with athletes training in the nude, and lasted close to a thousand years despite its great expense.

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Olive oil was popular as a form of birth control; Aristotle in his History of Animals recommends applying a mixture of olive oil combined with either oil of cedar, ointment of lead, or ointment of frankincense to the cervix to prevent pregnancy.

Olive oil tree reached Greece, Carthage and, Libya sometime in the 28th century BC, having been spread westward by the Phoenicians.

Olive oil trees were certainly cultivated by the Late Minoan period in Crete, and perhaps as early as the Early Minoan.

Olive oil trees were introduced to the Americas in the 16th century AD when cultivation began in areas that enjoyed a climate similar to the Mediterranean such as Chile, Argentina, and California.

The Olive oil became a principal product of the Minoan civilization, where it is thought to have represented wealth.

Scholars believe the oil was made by a process where olives were placed in woven mats and squeezed.

Olive oil trees were planted throughout the entire Mediterranean basin during evolution of the Roman Republic and Empire.

Olive oil tree has historically been a symbol of peace between nations.

Extra virgin olive oil is mostly used as a salad dressing and as an ingredient in salad dressings.

Taste of the olive oil is influenced by the varietals used to produce the oil and by the moment when the olives are harvested and ground.

The peak is lit and then burns until all the Olive oil is consumed, whereupon the rest of the cotton burns out.

In Jewish observance, olive oil was the only fuel allowed to be used in the seven-branched menorah in the Mishkan service during the Exodus of the tribes of Israel from Egypt, and later in the permanent Temple in Jerusalem.

In modern times, although candles can be used to light the menorah at Hanukkah, Olive oil containers are preferred, to imitate the original menorah.

Olive oil was used to prepare the holy anointing oil used for priests, kings, prophets, and others.

Olive oil has been used as both solvent and ligand in the synthesis of cadmium selenide quantum dots.

Olive oil is produced by grinding olives and extracting the oil by mechanical or chemical means.

The finest oil was produced from fully developed and ripe olives harvested solely from the apex of the tree, and lightly pressed, "for what flows from light pressure is very sweet and very thin.

Inferior oil is produced from unripe olives that are stored for extended periods of time until they grow soft or begin to shrivel to become more fit for grinding.

Excellent extra-virgin olive oil is produced in Tuscany, in cities like Lucca, Florence, Siena which are included in the association of "Citta dell'Olio".

International Olive Council is an intergovernmental organisation of states that produce olives or products derived from olives, such as olive oil.

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The Olive oil is then separated from the watery matter and fruit pulp with the use of a press or centrifugation (modern method).

Grades of oil extracted from the olive fruit can be classified as:.

Extra virgin olive oil is the highest grade of virgin olive oil derived by cold mechanical extraction without use of solvents or refining methods.

Virgin olive oil is a lesser grade of virgin oil, with free acidity of up to 2.

Olive pomace oil is refined pomace olive oil, often blended with some virgin oil.

In some cases, colza oil with added color and flavor has been labeled and sold as olive oil.

Extra virgin olive oil has strict requirements and is checked for "sensory defects" that include: rancid, fusty, musty, winey and muddy sediment.

Journalist Tom Mueller has investigated crime and adulteration in the olive oil business, publishing the article "Slippery Business" in New Yorker magazine, followed by the 2011 book Extra Virginity.

The point was made by Mueller that the profit margin on adulterated olive oil was three times that on the illegal narcotic drug cocaine.

Less than a year earlier, the American television program 60 Minutes had warned that "the olive oil business has been corrupted by the Mafia" and that "Agromafia" was a $16-billion per year enterprise.

Olive oil is a source of at least 30 phenolic compounds, among which are elenolic acid, a marker for maturation of olives, and alpha-tocopherol, one of the eight members of the Vitamin E family.