r/Israel • u/Royakushka • Oct 26 '24
Food 🧆 Fun facts that are not war Related: Israel has the best Olive oil standards in the entire world!
As for consuming Olive oil Greece is the top consumer (per capita) of Olive Oil in the world. With greek people consuming an average of 24 litres in a year!
Followed by Italy at 15L and Israel at 3.3-4.5L depending on the sensus, WE ARE NUMBER 3 we get the bronze and it's good enough for me, maybe next year we can get the silver. (I don't want to get the gold my colesteroll levels are already way too high)
But Greece mostly consumes hot pressed Olive oil and even their Virgin olive oil can have an acidity levels of up to 2.1% (that is way too high) which is the way to produce as much as possible. the actual highest commercial standard of olive oil in the world is the Israeli quality label standard.
The Israeli Quality Lable Standard is for only Pure Extra Virgin Olive Oil, where the maximum acidity requirement is 0.8%. all olives must be grown in Israel and the oil must be pressed in Israel. All olive oils with the lable are tested randomly (roughly every year arround October as that is the time of harvest for olives or Masik מסיק in Hebrew) with samples being taken from commercial stores and tested in several labs all over the world so the companies can't either predict, cheat, bribe or plan for the test (they have a long ass standards list called standard 191 which specifies the exact standards for olive oils among other food and drink leagle standards). Recently, there was olive oil drama as at least 8 companies have failed the tests and were banned from applying for new labels (I don't know if they since got the aprove to apply for new labels, it can be that they were banned for only a year or a few)
worth noting if it doesn't say pure olive oil on your olive oil, it means your olive oil is diluted with other oils (usually soy or sunflower or whichever one is cheapest in your country) if you have an alergy for any type of oil you better check on your bottle for the additive oils
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u/c9joe Mossad Attack Dolphin 005 Oct 26 '24
This is super cool. I'm remind myself to be more careful next time I buy olive oil.
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u/Royakushka Oct 26 '24
The reason I was reminded of this is the crazy lady who vandalised the Greek flag mistaking it for Israel
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u/1335JackOfAllTrades Oct 26 '24
What would be the best brands available in the USA?
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u/Royakushka Oct 26 '24
I have no Idea, every time I visit the USA I take Olive Oil with me so I can tell that fact and give some to people who host us or if I just like talking to them
I also bring coffee with Hel purely so I can tell the joke: "in Israel we like our women like we like our coffee... with a little Hell in 'em" and "the reason our coffee is holy is because it's full of Hell"
And I also bring fine Israeli wine to my host.
All the extra luggage gives me more room for shopping (mostly for my mother and friends, I hate shopping)
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u/PuppykittenPillow Oct 26 '24
Small glass hot water
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u/Royakushka Oct 26 '24
What?
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u/PuppykittenPillow Oct 27 '24
You reminded me of these old commercials... https://youtu.be/9P2iN6jqnqw?si=Eu1O4kGcRjPj3Qpp
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u/WrongKielbasa Oct 27 '24
Generally American oil standards are all over the place and I don’t think we have a unified certification. What I do find to be consistently good is actually Costco of all places. It’s a popular store in America and yes I’ll have to buy like 4 liters at a time but it’s always great quality and good prices.
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u/1335JackOfAllTrades Oct 27 '24
My comment was ver unclear. I was wondering if any of the top Israeli brands are sold in the US.
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u/GrassyTreesAndLakes Oct 26 '24
That is a fun fact! I wonder if I can find some quality Israeli olive oil here in Canada
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u/HereFishyFishy4444 Israel-Italy Oct 26 '24
Perhaps your best bet are kosher supermarkets? In Italy and France they usually have plenty of Israeli brands (olive oil Idk though).
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u/derpado514 Canada Oct 26 '24
The closest 1 i found is a brand called Moresh, which is Moroccan olive oil, but god damn it is so good...it's like 27$ a bottle, but it's so good...the logo is also a hamsa.
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u/Rampaje76 Oct 27 '24
Just a tip before you purchase olive oil - If you want olive oil that is made in israel, be sure to look for the icon/label you see in the picture above (the drop icon). If it doesnt have that icon/label, the olive oil is made somewhere else EVEN if it says "made in israel" on the label.
The law in Israel allows manufacturers to make their oil abroad and write " Made in Israel" on the bottle, as long as they bottled the oil in Israel.
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u/Royakushka Oct 27 '24
Yea, the picture is the Israeli olive oil quality seal I talked about, Im sorry if it wasn't clear enough
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u/Primary-Pudding-5349 Oct 27 '24
besides olive oil: wine, pomegranates, dates, almonds, pistachios, jojoba, apples, avocados, in the future perhaps even cocoa, etc, etc.
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u/Chaavva Finland (non-Jewish ally) Oct 27 '24
Cool! I just got myself some with my first Lev Haolam package :)
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u/rrrrwhat Oct 27 '24
worth noting if it doesn't say pure olive oil on your olive oil, it means your olive oil is diluted with other oils (usually soy or sunflower or whichever one is cheapest in your country) if you have an alergy for any type of oil you better check on your bottle for the additive oils
Worth noting that worldwide studies, including here in Israel have shows that this is complete bollocks. Guaranteed, 100% olive oil, as in stamped by Spain, Israel, Greece, and Italy has all been found to be blended. Canada's CBC did a stellar expose on this.
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u/Affectionate_Door205 Oct 27 '24
Really? Which brand would you recommend? And can I find it in Canada? 🇨🇦 🤔
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u/Royakushka Oct 27 '24
I can't really recommend a brand, I just go to my local market and buy the fust one I see with the quality seal.
I currently have in my home אליעד בית בד בגולן שמן זית ישראלי
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u/xen20 🇮🇱🇫🇮 Oct 26 '24
Good luck finding Israeli oil in Israeli supermarkets tho, Spain is very dominant there..