Is olive oil sold at Costco real? Woman on Tiktok shares a simple trick to find out

Olive oil is a staple for millions of Americans, especially those who want to be on a healthy diet. However, not all olive oil is actually olive oil. Brands find loopholes in the country’s labelling regulations. As a result, there are several products in the market that are sold as olive oil but are not the real deal. That is what TikTok user Mary (@grandpashooch) recently shared during her visit to a Costco store.

The video was captioned “Olive oil hack?” and Mary explains how to differentiate fake olive oil products from the real ones. She explained that customers needed to look for a harvest date on the packaging. If that is not present, then the product is not 100% olive oil. Such products often have a small percentage of olive oil, with the majority being just plain vegetable oil, which is misleading for consumers.

"This is your annual reminder that if your olive oil doesn’t have a harvest date, it’s not real,” Mary explained. “Lot number doesn’t matter, best by doesn’t matter. It has to have, as you can see, a harvest date to be real.” She then reveals how the regulation for olive oil products was quite loose, allowing several brands to take advantage of it and sell subpar products to customers with a small percentage of olive oil.

“There’s no regulation on olive oil,” Mary added. “It could be up to 75%, 80% vegetable oil without a harvest date.” The video has received close to 170,000 likes, and viewers were not happy when they were made aware of these facts. “FDA should be imprisoned,” one viewer commented. “They teach us in culinary school about the 'olive oil mafia' and fake olive oil,” quipped another. “Harvest date and make sure the bottle is glass and tinted,” a third user wrote. 

Not a lot of people might have known about this, but there have been multiple reports in the past trying to educate people about the difference between real and fake olive oil. One in Epicurious pointed out several ways in which one could figure out what product was fake. The report states the harvest date method, which Mary explained. Apart from that, it advises customers to never buy olive oil that is claimed to be "extra-virgin."

It also urges customers to look for a third-party certification seal. “In particular, the European Union's Protected Designation of Origin (PDO), Italy's DOP, or the 'COOC Certified Extra Virgin' seal from the California Olive Oil Council for California-made oils,” the report explained. The report claims that olive oil made in Australia or Chile was safe, as the former had stringent standards and a highly advanced testing system. Neither country mixes in carryover oil from the previous harvest, either.

For more such content, follow @grandpashooch on TikTok.

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