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?

Everyone’s been feeling the pressure on the olive oil market this year. It’s been a really tough market in 2017, with a delay in the olive harvest that pushed oil production out far later than usual, and was coupled with high and ever-rising prices throughout the spring.

Today, I’d like to do a brief review as we prep for next year’s harvest to begin in the coming months. First, I’m going to cover some numbers and percentages that we saw this last year across the globe. Then we’ll finish up with some personal insight on this market as we look forward towards next year.

Timing of contracts can be key, and most people at this point know that I’m a proponent of contracting your oil needs out each year.

This is your official notice that if you’re thinking about locking in a contract for your 2018 canola needs — be it RBD canola, non-GMO expeller pressed canola or organic canola oil, this fall is a great time. In fact, it’s one of the most common time to sign seed oil contracts. Why? Let me explain.

Olive oil has a specific way that it should be tasted to get the full effect of the oil -- just like you would taste wine. I do a lot of olive oil tastings in meetings with customers, along with training our staff internally.

Here's a quick run down if you've never officially been taught how to taste olive oil.

You have an idea for a new food product – your friends think its great and you have never seen anything like it on the market. You want to manufacture it but have absolutely no idea where to begin!

You have two choices when faced with this daunting task -- you can spend hours and hours figuring out everything from how to start a business, how to find a commercial kitchen or what are the local, state and federal regulations. Or you can hire food industry consultants to help you on the way. It really depends on how much time you have, and how much your time is worth.

Hiring a consultant to guide you on your path is an easy way to bring your product to market. Consultants have experience with co packers, sourcing ingredients and modifying formulas to fit manufacturing parameters. 

Staying on top of the CBOT market on a regular basis can be a daunting task for those that don’t have to do it as a daily part of their job.

As the soybean market changes, it affects the price of soybean oil, canola oil and other oils that are dependent on the soybean board. Fluctuations on a daily or weekly basis can make a significant impact on your bottom line.

Having a bit of perspective as you’re tracking your prices as they go up or down can be very helpful. That’s what I’m providing today: a bit of perspective over time.

The following are graphs from the last year, 5 years, 10 years, 15 years, 20 years, 25 years and 30 years

If you thought that the infamous butterfly seal was everywhere, be assured that the “quality seal” market for non-GMO products is only growing and diversifying.

I talk with buyers every day who are debating how to choose the right olive oil supplier — and their job depends on it. Of course, Extra Virgin Olive Oil is not the only product that they are debating, but but the analysis process looks pretty similar no matter what oils you’re responsible for sourcing — the biggest difference being that olive oil usually involves importing which can affect a few different parts of your decision making process

In the olive oil vendor search process, you have to uncover a lot of information and answer a lot of questions for yourself. In this article, we’ll address each of the questions below and explain how each suppliers’ answer could affect your final choice.

RBD Canola Oil and RBD Soybean Oil are all based of off a set parameter — the Chicago Board of Trade, also called the Board, the CBOT or the CME Group depending on who you’re talking with. This is the baseline for pricing, so that producers and suppliers can offer standardized pricing.

But what if you’re not buying the industry standard refined, GMO canola or soybean oil? What if you need organic canola oil or organic soybean oil? Does the pricing for those oils work in the same way? We’ll fill you in.

It’s hard to know exactly what you’re getting when it comes to oil. Oils are produced in lots of different ways — some are expelled using solvents like hexane, some are expeller pressed with a mechanical press that physically squeezes the oil out.

How an oil is produced isn’t always “clearly marked” either. Sometimes the descriptors are in the title, sometimes they’re in abbreviated form (so you’ve got to know the lingo), and sometimes they’re only in the description on the spec sheet. We’ve even found that some vendors are not so adept at quality control, so sometimes you will find no mention of how the oil is made on any documents — and it will be in your hands to make sure you ask the right questions and get the proper documentation.

Recently I have read a myriad of misinformation on organic canola oil on the internet. There’s also a myriad of truthful information out there, but sometimes it’s hard for the average consumer to know what is correct, because everyone — on both sides — is only trying to share the truth as they know it.

As food manufacturers, it is our duty to our customers to be able to explain the ingredients used, so if you’re using organic canola (or thinking about it) here’s how to answer one of the more common questions you’re going to get.

Or if you’re a consumer reading this, here’s the background to your burning question.

I’ve gotten this one multiple times myself: how can organic canola oil exist, if certified organic products can’t be genetically modified, and canola oil is — by its very nature — genetically modified from the rapeseed plant?

That is right where we will start, because that’s right where the first misunderstanding begins. Because canola was never actually genetically modified from rapeseed to begin with.

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!

Have you ever heard of a “canola salad oil” versus a “canola fry oil”? What is so different about those oils that makes the fry oil good for frying and the salad oil good for, well, salads — and just about everything else.

It’s pretty simple, because there’s only a few factors at play here.

Unrefined Coconut Oil is one of the top selling oils in manufacturing and on retail shelves today. It’s been a rising star only over the last couple of years, but it’s in the height of it’s popularity right now.

That said, people often run into a lot of confusion when it comes to buying coconut oil — which one is right for what you’re looking for? Which one will fit the products that you’re making, or the cooking that you’re doing?

Unrefined coconut oil is a top choice in quality and nutrition, so if you’re cooking at home I highly recommend it. That said, there are still some pros and cons when you’re thinking about using this oil for manufacturing — you have to really decide if it’s the right fit for your product.

Many chefs and home cooks have wondered if Olive Pomace Oil is ideal — or even okay — to cook with.

There are so many thoughts and opinions floating around that I thought I’d weigh out all the pros and cons — specifically for consumers, chefs and moms cooking in their home kitchens.