Good olive oil from the supermarket?

This article was last revised in October 2026

You may recognize this: on your holiday on the Mediterranean, the olive oil was delicious, but back home you can't find that same flavor in the olive oil from the supermarket. Why is that? Is there a simple explanation? We at The Olive Label think there is.

The selection of olive oil in the supermarket is often overwhelming. Especially in large supermarkets, the shelves are packed from top to bottom with different bottles from various brands. Most have Italian- and Spanish-sounding terms on the label that we've all heard at some point: aceite de oliva, olio extravergine di oliva, vierge, extra vierge, etc. And then there are all kinds of other terms, such as traditional olive oil, olive oil blend, first-press olive oil, classico, gentle, mild, robusto, cucina delicata, etc. What do they actually say about quality? And there you are: which one was for salads, and which for frying and roasting? Read our blog about frying and roasting in olive oil.

Does it even matter? Oil is oil, right? Might as well buy olive oil on special offer. Or maybe that nice bottle? It will look great on the kitchen counter, and presentation matters too. Which one should I choose?

The short answer

If you like flat, perhaps even slightly rancid olive oil, and quality matters less to you, you can hardly go wrong in the supermarket. If you like fresh, high-quality extra virgin olive oil, you may be better off buying it elsewhere. There are several reasons for this, which we'll explain below.

Keuringsdienst van Waarde, October 2026

The Dutch television programme Keuringsdienst van Waarde confirms this picture in 2026, too. Not everything in the supermarket is as it seems, and you're being ripped off right before your eyes. Keuringsdienst van Waarde had 27 bottles tested that are sold as extra virgin in supermarkets and other retail chains, and 15 of the 27 oils tested turned out not to be extra virgin! That's more than half, and we find that shocking. Of the 15 that weren't extra virgin, 11 were of the lower quality category 'virgin' (so not 'extra' virgin), and 4 were classified as lampante oil.

Historically, the term lampante refers to lamp oil, the Italian 'olio lampante' or Spanish 'aceite lampante'. In modern olive oil legislation and quality classifications, the term means: the lowest category, olive oil of the very poorest quality, unsuitable for human consumption in that form. The oil can only be used for consumption after refining. Lampante oil has serious flavor and aroma defects (for example, due to damaged or moldy olives, or olives stored for too long) or very high acidity. Carbonell (who doesn't have a bottle in their kitchen?), La Española, AH's own brand, and Dirk's 1 de Beste were so poor in quality that they were classified as lampante oil—not suitable for human consumption. Outrageous.

Unfortunately, a higher price proved no guarantee of quality in the supermarket. Gkazas oil (marketing notwithstanding) and Xenos Sierra Oliva, both priced at €19.98 per liter, turned out not to be extra virgin at all. And Carbonell, at €14.29 per liter, was even lampante oil. This is blatant fraud, of course.  

The results are a snapshot in time; quality can change. But as a buyer, you have every right to expect the contents to match the label. See the full results of the Keuringsdienst van Waarde investigation.

Click the image below to watch the Keuringsdienst van Waarde episode about extra virgin olive oil, October 2026

Good olive oil from the supermarket

‘Good olive oil in the supermarket? It doesn't exist. Some are just less bad…’, says Wilma van Grinsven-Padberg in an interview. The most toxic aisle in the supermarket, according to Michiel Hekkens in this article in Manners. 

 For years, press releases have been appearing about the highly questionable quality of supermarket olive oil. It's likely that this will always be the case, and the reason is actually easy to explain. We'll come back to that later.

A 2010 UC Davis study found that 69% of the imported olive oils examined from stores in California failed to meet the requirements for extra virgin. In a 2011 study, 66 of the 90 samples examined from five widely sold imported olive oil brands failed to meet the requirements for extra virgin olive oil. Stiftung Warentest reported in 2024 that 6 of the 19 olive oils tested were not allowed to carry the extra virgin designation.

The NVWA also found quality problems. In a risk-based investigation in 2019, nine of the 28 oils examined failed to meet the taste standards for their stated category. Eight of those had been sold as extra virgin. Only two of the non-compliant samples also had a chemical irregularity. Laboratory analysis and assessment by an expert tasting panel therefore complement each other.

Why is supermarket olive oil different? The two worlds of olive oil

The bottle says the same thing: ‘extra virgin olive oil’. Yet every bottle is different, and behind them lie two very different worlds. The difference comes down to production, scale, purchasing, the average consumer's taste, and the choices made along the way. Extra virgin is a legal quality category. There are still enormous differences in quality within that category. Meeting the requirements, then, is not the same as producing the fresh, characterful top quality we're looking for.

The world of supermarkets and bulk olive oil

All olive oil is made from olives, but its quality is shaped by a whole series of choices and circumstances. There are huge differences in the types of olives used, the weather conditions in a region, when and how the olives are harvested, their quality, how quickly they are pressed, how the oil is stored and transported, and whether it is blended with oil from other regions, other countries, or previous harvests. Naturally, things sometimes go wrong in this process, too.

In the EU alone, there are at least 718,000 supermarkets (IBISWorld 2021/2022), creating a huge market for the cheapest possible bulk olive oil: large quantities of oil from different farmers and mills, sourced directly or through cooperatives and traders. In this bulk olive oil market, hundreds of millions of liters are traded internationally at wholesale prices, usually per kilo (a liter of olive oil weighs 0.912 kilos, by the way). Sometimes a lower-quality harvest is included, too. Large bottlers buy up these batches and blend them to create a recognizable brand flavor.

Deoleo, the company behind 29 brands, including Bertolli, Carbonell, and Carapelli, shows the scale we're talking about. For 2025, it reported sales of 158.2 million liters of oil in 68 countries!

It is simply in supermarkets' DNA to sell a lot at a low price. Supermarkets' business model is based on high turnover per square meter, and their margins are always under pressure from competing supermarkets. The result of these market forces is bulk olive oil designed for scale, low prices, and thin margins.

This race to lower prices puts pressure on how the olives are grown, harvested, and processed. It shifts the focus from quality to quantity. But, strangely enough, that works very well for producers.

A mild, familiar flavor appeals to many consumers. And consumer research shows that even rancid flavors can be appreciated. I suspect that this combination of consumer preference and price pressure is precisely what explains the difference between supermarket olive oil and the fresh, characterful extra virgin olive oil we're looking for.

Flavor

Deoleo itself describes how it develops flavor profiles based on consumer preferences. Those preferences are determined through consumer tasting panels, whose tastes differ from those of professional olive oil tasters and olive oil sommeliers, such as those at the olive oil institute. Consumers prefer a familiar, consistent, and not-too-pronounced flavor. By blending different oils, the brand's flavor must remain recognizable from one harvest year to the next. The batches of oil and harvest years used can change; the brand flavor must stay consistent.

A study of 140 high-quality extra virgin oils showed, for example, that the average consumer liked very bitter and very pungent oils less than fruity oils with a ripe flavor and a slightly sweet quality.

For supermarket olive oil producers, the emphasis is on a broad appeal: mild, preferably not bitter or pungent, so the oil doesn't overpower dishes and appeals to a broad audience. Large quantities, a familiar 'mild' flavor, and a competitive price. Mass sales mean cash in the till!

What if the familiar flavor is a defect?

This is where things get surprising and interesting, and it's probably the main reason why supermarket olive oil is repeatedly judged 'poor' or at least not 'extra' virgin by experts and lovers of 'real' extra virgin olive oil.

Researchers at the University of California, Davis asked 110 consumers from Northern California to taste 22 commercial olive oils. As expected, many participants didn't like bitterness and pungency—qualities that professional tasters, by contrast, consider positive characteristics of olive oil. But what was remarkable about this study was that as many as 44% liked oils with rancid flavors!

The researchers suspected that familiarity played a role. People who have used oil with rancid flavors for years can come to consider it normal.

Rancidity, however, is a quality defect in olive oil. According to the judges, extra virgin olive oil with even a hint of rancidity has a defect and is rejected as 'extra' virgin. Yet these participants liked such oils!

This helps explain why consumers and professional tasters can judge the same olive oil very differently. Consumers recognize a familiar flavor and keep buying it, so producers continue selecting for that flavor. Experts, however, recognize a defect and reject the olive oil.

This is probably why some people, experts, and professionals in extra virgin olive oil look down their noses at most supermarket olive oil. I suspect a lot of supermarket olive oil teeters on the edge of rancidity because some customers find that flavor familiar! Those customers don't want fresh, pungent, slightly bitter olive oil. They want mild, perhaps even slightly rancid oil as a familiar flavor! But another group is actively looking for that fresh, pungent, slightly bitter extra virgin olive oil.

A mild flavor, by the way, is not the same as rancidity. There are excellent mild olive oils. But a familiar flavor, on its own, is no proof of quality. 

Later harvest: more oil and a milder flavor

A milder flavor can go hand in hand with an economically attractive harvest. As olives ripen, their oil content generally increases, while the polyphenol content decreases in many varieties. The amount of oil actually extracted varies by variety and harvest time. More oil per kilo of olives helps lower the cost per liter.

This is where consumer preference and production economics may align: a softer flavor can sell well, while a higher yield can make a lower price possible. That explains why mildness can be commercially attractive. It doesn't mean every supermarket oil is made the same way.

Polyphenols, flavor, and shelf life

Polyphenols contribute to bitterness and pungency, and the higher the polyphenol content, the better the olive oil is protected against oxidation. A lower polyphenol content can mean that, under similar conditions, the oil becomes rancid more quickly. Shelf life is also affected by fatty acid composition, packaging, and storage.

There are excellent mild extra virgin oils. Mildness in itself is therefore not a quality defect. Rancidity is.

The quality threshold

If some consumers don't recognize incipient rancidity or even appreciate it, what commercial incentive is there to stay well clear of it?

My suspicion: some bulk olive oil is blended to achieve the desired mild flavor at the lowest possible cost. In doing so, the oil may be made so close to the lower limit for extra virgin that there is almost no margin for quality. Just barely extra virgin at bottling, but no longer so after transport, storage, and time on the shelf. The customer remains satisfied, while the professional taster rejects the oil.

That taster isn't expecting a Michelin-starred meal from a snack bar. They're checking whether the contents meet the quality category stated on the bottle. But there are enormous differences even within that category: meeting the legal requirements is one thing; producing fresh, characterful top quality is another.

Can extra virgin olive oil lose quality?

Yes. Olive oil is a natural product, and it doesn't improve with age. Time, oxygen, light, and heat can affect its quality. How quickly this happens depends, among other things, on the quality of the olives at harvest, processing, storage, and packaging.

On the other hand, if you start with top-quality extra virgin olive oil, for example from an early-harvest Italian Coratina or the Spanish Picual olive variety, and process it perfectly into a fine extra virgin olive oil and store it correctly, that olive oil may retain its quality for as long as 24 months.

The Keuringsdienst van Waarde test did not determine whether loss of quality after bottling was the cause of the rejected bottles. It is my possible explanation for some of the results.

Where does bulk olive oil come from?

The heart of the international bulk trade is in Spain, particularly Andalusia. There, harvests from countless farmers come together in a trade flow of hundreds of millions of liters. Significant volumes also come from Turkey, Tunisia, Greece, and Portugal.

The scale is greater than you might think: according to the provisional figures from the International Olive Council, Spain produced around 1.6 billion liters of olive oil in the 2024/2025 crop year, accounting for around 40% of global production. Total global production is therefore roughly 4 billion liters of olive oil. This comes from different types of farming: traditional groves, as well as intensive and super-intensive plantations. In the latter systems, trees are planted close together, often in rows that can be harvested mechanically. Irrigation, high yields per hectare, and mechanization can significantly reduce production costs per liter.

The ‘more for less’ approach and the race to the lowest prices put pressure on the entire supply chain, nature, and the environment. How much room is left for careful practices and fair compensation for farmers? That is a question we consider important. However, you can't tell from the price alone how a producer treats their people, nature, and quality.

Good extra virgin olive oil doesn't necessarily have to be very expensive. But if you mainly buy based on the lowest price, that tells you nothing about the oil's origin, harvest, or quality.

The world of the farmer

But there is also a completely different world of extra virgin olive oil: the world of the highest possible quality, pure, fresh, often early-harvested, usually single-estate extra virgin olive oil, appreciated by connoisseurs, professional tasters, olive oil sommeliers, and chefs, for example. The extra virgin olive oils that win awards at international olive oil competitions.

The world of farmers who make it their passion to produce the finest possible extra virgin olive oil, with care for nature and the environment. With each harvest, they proudly strive for premium-quality extra virgin olive oil.

That is the world where The Olive Label lives and works. For The Olive Label, the choice starts with the producer and the quality of their oil. We buy directly from farmers and family businesses that produce their own extra virgin olive oil. The oil is tested in laboratories and tasted by organoleptic, or expert sensory, panels. These farmers set the price of their own product; we decide which oils to select for our store.

Good olive oil starts in the olive grove. The olive variety, year-round care of the trees, carefully choosing the right time to harvest, the speed of processing and storage all combine to determine the quality. We select our oils based on their origin, harvest, aroma and taste, supported by the analyses available. They are olive oils that regularly win awards at international olive oil competitions.

So we don’t buy an anonymous batch of thousands of litres at a bulk price and then slap a brand on it. When you buy from us, you’re buying olive oil made by a producer we know personally, with a clear provenance and the character of their product and harvest. Sometimes smooth and fruity, sometimes green, bitter and peppery. There’s nothing wrong with a bold flavour.

The difference isn’t simply a matter of blending or not blending, either. Dentri Blend combines different olive varieties; Oilalà 5 Star combines Greek and Italian olive oils. We assess the final product: who makes it, where does it come from, and how does it smell and taste?

That’s very different from supermarket olive oil!

Why does The Olive Label follow the harvest season?

Our farmers have a limited harvest. We buy our selection from them. Once it’s sold, it’s gone. We don’t restock a sold-out oil with an anonymous batch that tastes roughly the same.

That’s why our range changes with the seasons, and some oils may sell out before the new harvest is available. This reflects the quantity available. We select the oils we still offer to the same quality standards. So our stock isn’t an endless supply, but a selection of what our producers have made that season. Once it’s gone, it’s gone—until the new harvest is available.

The price of extra virgin olive oil: what do you get for your money?

A high price can quickly lead you to expect that you’re buying good olive oil. But the price tag doesn’t tell you whether what’s inside really is extra virgin.

This was also clear from the Keuringsdienst van Waarde test in October 2026. Gkazas and Xenos Sierra Oliva, both €19.98 per litre, were classified as virgin. The olive oil tested from Sissy-Boy cost as much as €64.95 per litre and also failed to meet the extra virgin quality grade. The results were a snapshot in time, but clearly show that a higher price is no guarantee of extra virgin quality.

A low purchase price doesn’t automatically mean a low retail price

According to the POOLred figures published by COAG, the average Spanish bulk price for extra virgin olive oil from 3 to 9 October 2026 was around €2.92 per litre. This was unpackaged oil from the 2025/2026 harvest, sold by the producer. It gives an idea of the market in which large bottlers buy. When you’re dealing with millions of litres, every cent counts. But a low bulk price doesn’t tell you what the consumer will ultimately pay. Between the producer and the store shelf, there are costs such as packaging, transport, distribution, marketing, supermarket margins and taxes.

A beautiful bottle and a well-known brand can make a higher price reinforce the expectation of quality. Whether the oil lives up to that expectation depends on what’s inside.

Good extra virgin olive oil can be affordable too

You don’t have to go to the supermarket to get a good price. At The Olive Label, you’ll find both affordable oils for everyday use and special oils from small harvests. Caixeiro Origins costs €15.60 per litre in a five-litre bag-in-box. Oilalà 5 Star costs €16 per litre in a three-litre bag-in-box. These are product prices (October 2026), including VAT and excluding shipping costs.

There are also oils such as Cultũra. Its 2025/2026 harvest consists of just 400 hand-numbered 500 ml bottles. That’s 200 litres of beautiful organic extra virgin olive oil, full of character and with a polyphenol content high enough to qualify for a health claim. If this entire harvest were sold at the Spanish bulk price mentioned above, it would bring in less than €600. That would have to cover maintenance of the olive grove, harvesting, processing and the producer’s income.

So compare the price per litre and what you get for it. Who made the oil? How was it produced and stored? What information is available about its quality?

A high price tag is no proof of quality.

What does acidity tell you about quality?

To carry the label ‘extra virgin’, the acidity level must not exceed 0.8%, according to European regulations. This percentage refers to free fatty acids. It is not the percentage of oxidised oil, and you can’t taste this acidity the way you can taste the sourness of a lemon.

Low acidity is a good sign, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. The oil must also meet other chemical requirements and pass an organoleptic test of its aroma and taste. Extra virgin olive oil must have a certain freshness and fruitiness, and be free of defects in aroma and taste. So an oil with an acidity level of 0.2% can still fail the extra virgin test.

Olive oil fraud

Counterfeit, illegally marketed extra virgin olive oil has been one of the most lucrative forms of food fraud for thousands of years. In the 1970s, thousands of cuneiform clay tablets more than 4,000 years old were found in the ruins of Ebla, Syria. Their translation reveals that the royal court appointed officials and inspectors to monitor olive presses and olive oil production in an effort to prevent fraud. Read this article: Olive Oil, 5,000 Years of Fraud. And more than 2,000 years later, Roman doctor and philosopher Claudius Galen (129–c. 216 AD) was still complaining about unscrupulous traders diluting fine olive oil with liquid lard. Olive oil fraud is still happening today.

Extra virgin olive oil is easy to counterfeit, difficult to detect, and the average consumer is easy to fool. Most people don’t know what extra virgin olive oil is supposed to taste like, after all.

How does it work?

Where does this illegal oil come from, and how does it end up in the supermarket? There are many ways, and one of them goes something like this. Cheap olive oil from countries where oil is inexpensive is shipped to Italy, where olive oil is more expensive. Meanwhile, sunflower oil, soybean oil or another cheap oil is also shipped or smuggled into Italy. Then the fraudsters mix the two oils in Italy.

If the acidity, aroma or taste is still really poor, chemical trickery is used to alter it. For a better colour, for example, they might add some beta-carotene and chlorophyll. This concocted fake ‘extra virgin’ olive oil is bottled in Italy in a beautiful bottle, with a gorgeous label covered in Italian-sounding terms, making it look just like expensive Italian olive oil.

This fraudulent oil is sold through regular wholesalers, and the supermarket—which knows nothing about it and certainly doesn’t taste-test everything—buys it as competitively priced extra virgin olive oil. The consumer, rushing through the supermarket, is easily tempted. After all, it’s a well-known supermarket, so you’re not on your guard. The bottle looks perfectly nice, too, and the brand name and foreign-sounding terms on the label seem familiar. The price is good as well, so into the basket it goes. Oil is oil. The New York Times published a great visual presentation of this story, which you can find here.

There was plenty of fraud involving fake olive oil in 2024, too. In January, news broke of an Italian police investigation into fraudsters selling oil to restaurants in Rome, made by treating an unknown seed oil with chlorophyll and beta-carotene. The bottles of fraudulent oil were sold with the label “extra virgin olive oil made in Italy”. Read the news report about the investigation in Rome. Europol reported in 2019 the seizure of 150,000 litres of fake olive oil. According to Europol, the criminals changed the colour of sunflower oil and low-quality olive oil by adding chlorophyll or beta-carotene to give it the colour of extra virgin olive oil and sell it as extra virgin on the Italian and German markets.

An international problem

Illegal olive oil is an international problem. In another operation, reported by Europol in December 2023, eleven suspects were arrested and more than 260,000 litres of oil were seized.

That’s why we want to know where our olive oil comes from. We know the producer, buy directly from them and know which oil we’re selling. For us, this short, transparent supply chain is an important part of the story.

Can you buy good olive oil in a supermarket at all?

There’s always an exception that proves the rule, but finding genuinely good olive oil in a supermarket is almost impossible. To begin with, the Keuringsdienst van Waarde test shows that more than half of the oils tested weren’t even extra virgin, despite what the labels said. And even if an oil is extra virgin, that doesn’t mean it’s good olive oil. Extra virgin is a legal grade; within that grade, there are huge differences in quality, taste and character.

Perhaps the bulk olive oil was still extra virgin when it was bottled, but it may have been stored in less-than-ideal conditions and left in daylight in the supermarket. Time and daylight can cause bulk oil to lose what little quality it still had. So having extra virgin on the label doesn’t guarantee the oil’s quality when you open the bottle.

Another problem is the enormous differences in taste and freshness between oils that are extra virgin. How do you know which one to buy? And an oil that meets the requirements isn’t necessarily one you’ll enjoy at the table.

In short, with the rare exception that proves the rule, there’s unfortunately a good chance that the olive oil you bought at the supermarket isn’t extra virgin and/or doesn’t taste good. Even if the label says extra virgin or you paid a little more.

How do you know what kind of olive oil you’re buying?

Like a book, you can’t judge olive oil by its cover alone. Behind all the labels saying ‘extra virgin’ are huge differences in quality and taste. So what’s on the bottle tells you far from everything about what’s inside.

Even if you take the Keuringsdienst van Waarde list of olive oils that tested as extra virgin to the supermarket, you still won’t know whether you’re buying a tasty olive oil.

There you are as a consumer, holding a beautiful bottle with Italian-sounding terms. Is it genuinely extra virgin? Is it even olive oil? How should you, as a consumer, deal with that? Ideally, you should be able to taste olive oil before buying it. But if you open bottles in the supermarket, someone will soon ask what you’re doing.

So how do you buy extra virgin olive oil?

If you want to reduce the risk of buying poor-quality olive oil, avoid supermarkets and big brands. Look for a reliable shop that knows the farmer who produces the extra virgin olive oil.

Perhaps there’s a physical shop near you where you can buy olive oil and, hopefully, taste it too. If you’re buying online, do a little research. Check the reviews of the shop and the olive oil. Order an oil, then smell and taste it neat from a spoon, without bread, and judge the olive oil for yourself.

At The Olive Label, you can rest assured that all our extra virgin olive oil really is extra virgin! We know all the farmers personally, and we have a laboratory report for almost all the oils we sell. If it isn’t included among the images for a particular olive oil, you can request the report from us.

Try it for yourself!

People who are used to bland, greasy oil sometimes look a little uncomfortable when you suggest tasting olive oil neat, without bread. But come on, everyone—extra virgin olive oil is supposed to taste good! You wouldn’t expect olives to taste musty and rancid, would you? So why would you expect that from olive oil?

The most fun test is to try it for yourself. Do you have olive oil in your kitchen? Grab a tablespoon and pour in some oil. Make sure it isn’t too cold; warm the spoon in your palm if necessary. Smell the oil first. Does it smell rancid or musty? Do you smell spoiled nuts or something muddy? Whatever its origin, if olive oil doesn’t smell fresh, you don’t want to taste it! Throw the whole bottle of oil away.

Does the olive oil smell fresh and fruity? You might detect the aroma of green grass, green tomatoes, tomato leaves or perhaps apple or artichoke. That’s olive oil you can taste.

Slurp the olive oil from the spoon and let it move around your mouth before swallowing. Every good extra virgin olive oil has its own distinctive aroma and taste. You might taste hints of apple, tomato, fresh leaves, artichoke, etc., but good olive oil is almost certain to have a certain degree of bitterness, too. This comes from compounds derived from the phenols oleuropein and ligstroside, which are polyphenols that are very good for you. Most good-quality olive oils will also give you a tickle at the back of your throat. You might even need to cough. According to experts, coughing (and this article from the Monell research institute) is a sign of fresh, high-quality extra virgin olive oil.

These polyphenols contribute to the flavour, and their levels can decrease over time. The fresh aromas can also fade, and the oil can become rancid. Refining removes the flavour compounds and polyphenols through heat and chemical treatment. Read more about refined oil in this blog: Refined olive oil—really?

Some oils are smooth and mild. Others have a touch of bitterness and give you a tingling sensation at the back of your throat. That’s not the same as rancidity. Bitterness and pungency can actually be positive characteristics of extra virgin olive oil.

Your own nose and mouth can help you choose good olive oil. An accredited panel of professional olive oil tasters is needed for an official assessment of whether an oil is extra virgin and free of so-called defects. But with a little practice, you can also judge for yourself whether an olive oil is good quality. Then you can decide whether you like it, too.

In short

There’s no reason to settle for bland or rancid olive oil. A beautiful label and the words ‘extra virgin’ are just a starting point and tell only a small part of the whole story. Find a seller who can tell you about the producer, the harvest and the oil’s quality, and taste the difference for yourself!

Keuringsdienst van Waarde. Worth a watch!

In 2024, the Keuringsdienst van Waarde also wanted to find out what was going on with all the different kinds of olive oil. Olives, a press, and hey presto, you have olive oil. Simple, right? So why is there so much choice that you can’t see the wood for the olive trees? Classico, mild olive oil, light (?), cold, warm, traditional, etc.

This earlier episode from 2024 covered refined olive oil, among other things, as well as the nonsense claim that you shouldn’t fry and roast with extra virgin olive oil. That’s great for us, of course—you get to hear it from someone else for a change!

Click the image below to watch the Keuringsdienst van Waarde episode about olive oil.

Where can you buy that premium extra virgin olive oil?

Well, at TheOliveLabel.shop, of course. A beautiful, delicious product that comes straight from nature and directly from the farmer should be available to everyone. That’s why we started TheOliveLabel.shop: to offer exactly this kind of olive oil.

TheOliveLabel.shop sources premium olive oil especially for you, without intermediaries, directly from the farmer. We know the farmers personally and have visited most of them. They’re proud of their products, and we often can’t wait to taste their olive oil as soon as it arrives.

Of course, supermarket olive oil also originally comes from a farmer. The difference is that we select and sell the oil from each producer separately. You know who the oil comes from, which harvest it’s from and what to expect in terms of taste.

Top tip!

Don’t buy olive oil based only on the price, the label or the beautiful bottle. Look at the producer and the information about the oil’s quality. And choose a flavour that suits you. Smooth and fruity, or green and peppery? Treat and surprise yourself and others with truly good olive oil.

Browse our premium extra virgin olive oil.

Finally

Superior-quality extra virgin olive oil is almost a miracle. It’s all natural and has many health benefits: oil extracted mechanically from olives, without refining. And above all, it’s delicious. A few drops can make even a simple dish so much better.

Want to make a conscious choice based on polyphenols? Then take a look at our extra virgin olive oil with a health claim. For olive oil that meets the requirements, a European health claim is permitted: the polyphenols contribute to the protection of blood lipids from oxidative stress.

The claim applies to oil containing at least 5 mg of hydroxytyrosol and its derivatives per 20 grams of oil. The beneficial effect is obtained with a daily intake of 20 grams. Check the information on polyphenol content and the analysis for the specific oil. The requirements can be found in European Regulation 432/2012.

Olive oil has been eaten for thousands of years and is part of life around the Mediterranean. And well, if it’s been good enough for them for so long…

Olive oil is for everyone. It combines the power of the sun with the best the earth has to offer.

Enjoy! Health is Wealth! O’Lives Great!

Sources

• KRO-NCRV: results of the extra virgin olive oil test, October 2026.
• KRO-NCRV: press release about the broadcast of October 9, 2026.
• Interview with Wilma van Grinsven-Padberg, published on her website.
• UC Davis: study of imported oil sold as extra virgin, 2010.
• UC Davis: Evaluation of Extra Virgin Olive Oil Sold in California, 2011 — research report.
• NVWA: MANCP annual report 2019, pages 76–77 — olive oil conformity assessment.
• European Commission: olive oil quality categories and controls.
• Deoleo: 2025 report, pages 41–42 — volumes, brands and countries of sale.
• Deoleo: consumer taste, flavor profiles and blending.
• International Olive Council: preliminary production data for 2024/2025.
• Valli et al.: Sensory analysis and consumer acceptance of 140 high-quality extra virgin olive oils, 2014 — summary.
• Polari, Crawford and Wang: oil content and polyphenols during the ripening of three olive cultivars, 2021 — research report.
• UC Davis: consumer study on preferences for, among other things, rancid flavors, 2011.
• Li and Wang: Shelf Life of Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Its Prediction Models, 2018 — scientific review.
• UC Davis: olive oil quality, processing and storage.
• COAG Jaén / POOLred: producer prices from October 3 through 9, 2026.
• Europol: 150,000 liters of fake olive oil seized, 2019.
• Europol: eleven arrests and more than 260,000 liters of oil seized, 2023.
• Monell Chemical Senses Center: oleocanthal, throat irritation and the cough, 2011.
• KRO-NCRV: earlier episode about olive oil, refining and frying.
• European Regulation 432/2012: requirements for the health claim about olive oil polyphenols.
• IBISWorld, 2021/2022: Supermarkets & Grocery Stores in Europe — number of supermarkets.
• The New Yorker: interview with Tom Mueller about, among other things, the olive oil inspectors in Ebla.
• Tom Mueller, Slippery Business: includes Galen on adulteration with lard.
• News report on the investigation into adulterated oil in Rome, January 2024.
• The New York Times: Extra Virgin Suicide — visual explanation of olive oil fraud.