Bulk Edible Oil Blog

Want to learn about olive oil?  Today, I've gathered a few infographics allowing you to peruse some fun facts on this "liquid gold".

Is olive oil non-GMO? This is one of the most common questions we get about olive oil, and I thought I’d address this one again.

You walk into a gourmet olive oil store: in front of you, there is Spanish olive oil, there’s Greek olive oil, and there’s Italian olive oil — along with oil from about about 20 other countries. So what is it about each of these regions that gives the olives their particular flavor?

Let me ask the question a different way… If you cut an olive tree in half, roots and all, and took 1/2 to Spain and 1/2 to Greece, would the Extra Virgin Olive Oil, once produced, taste different?

This musing probes at the root of a bigger question: why do particular olive growing regions have distinctive flavors of EVOO? Why is the classic Spanish EVOO peppery? Why does Tunisian EVOO taste buttery?

I know what today REALLY is… a prep day for the holiday tomorrow! With that in mind, I’ve compiled a bunch of delicious recipes using olive oil (of course, what else did you expect?!), for all of you last-minute chefs out there.

Here’s the catch: they’re all desserts. Two reasons: 1) I love dessert. Enough said. And 2) when you center your desserts around olive oil, people usually consider it special and exotic — and that perhaps you are an absolutely incredible chef. So delight your fellow party-goers!

If you buy commodity oils, sometimes understanding the pricing and how it is structured is a sigh of relief. It’s based off the CBOT, which is public information you can check to understand how your costs are changing and why.

The olive oil market historically hasn’t been so easy. That’s because it’s not really a commodity oil, but in the bulk world it often works as such.

What’s the truth? There’s so much hearsay that gets thrown around related to olive oil these days, because it’s such a hot button topic.

In this article, I’ll honestly answer both the classic and the obscure myths, and try to shed some objective light on the matter. Does olive oil get better with age? Does heat destroy the health properties? Does the “fridge” test work? Is Extra Virgin that much healthier than other grades of olive oil?

The term “omega” is usually thought of to be something healthy … a related to food and nutrition… and you should get more of them.

But do you really know what omega’s are? Most people don’t.

The more important question is why do your customers want to eat foods that contain omegas? Because healthy consumers everywhere are aware of the benefits and they are, in fact, looking for products that offer them. Understanding what each type of omega is, and why it’s healthy or unhealthy will give you some insight into your customers’ mindset.

There are many different olive oil grades. Some are more common in retail and others are more common in industrial food manufacturing.

If you’ve ever wondered what the difference is between these olive oil grades, it all how do to with how they are produced. Once you get an idea of how they’re made, you can start to see the differences between each and find which one is right for you — no matter if you’re a retail buyer, if you’re in manufacturing or food service.

There are many different grades of olive oil available. Each each one represents a different level of quality that corresponds to the way that the oil was produced.

But rather than tell you, I’d like to show you. Below is a short slide share presentation that guides you through the process of how the different olive oil grades are made. Click through to read about the process.

People are caring more and more about what they're putting in their bodies.  They're looking at ingredient labels, rejoicing over non-GMO foods, and asking for more information all them time, about where their food is coming from.  

Consumers want to be connected to what they're eating.

This was shown in the hilariously ironic Portlandia clip, where a couple eating at a restaurant go to far lengths to understand where their chicken is from and how it was raised.

So now, more than ever, how your bulk ingredients are made matters.  It matters to the people that you care about-- your target market, the people that are going to buy your product.  This includes the bulk oil ingredients that you use. 

And it's not just about what they're from made from-- it's also about how they're produced.  Was there chemicals involved?  Was the oil refined?  Was it a naturally produced oil, fresh squeezed with a poetic romantic tale?  

Either way, your customers want to know, and down the line, your ingredient can choices affect your sales.