Cum să îți alegi corect ce ulei de măsline cumperi în vacanța din Grecia. Zece sfaturi de la Cătălin Adam, antreprenorul care a creat Eliada - cel mai premiat ulei de măsline cu brand românesc (P)

Sthousands of Romanians spend their holidays in Greece and most of them take the opportunity to return home with a few liters of olive oil from "their mother". But, as everywhere, not all olive oil is equally good, in fact, there is often a chance of buying a fake oil. Don't forget that olive oil is the most adulterated food product on the planet.

I spoke with Cătălin Adam, the entrepreneur who created Eliad, a Romanian olive oil brand from Greece and which, together with the processor, collected this year more than 5 gold and silver medals at the international olive oil competitions in Athens, Berlin, London, Tokyo and New York.

Ten tips from Cătălin Adam on how to choose our olive oil:

First of all, I would avoid buying oil on the side of the road, so to speak, if I don't have the opportunity to taste it. And even so, I would avoid buying if it doesn't have any kind of label. I know, it's the family's oils, they eat these too, samd. But we don't know how they're made, nobody vouches for them, and we don't know exactly what they contain. Olive trees are treated for pests, sprayed. In Greece it doesn't rain often enough to wash the olives. If the olives were not washed during the extraction process, there is a good chance that they contain residues of various chemicals. In supermarkets, even if most of the oils are industrialized, you find oils that meet fairly strict standards in essence.
I would not buy oils stored in plastic containers, especially if it is transparent. The light alters the oil, oxidizes it and increases its content of free fatty acids - the so-called acidity. If glass filters ultraviolet, plastic does not.
Choose the oil that says extra virgin and nothing else. Already the one who put it in the package assumes a responsibility.
Look for local producers that have a label, which means that they are subject to checks by the authorities. If there are oil mills in the area, go directly to them, they may have oil stored properly and they are required to have assay reports.
Avoid, in the second half of the year, oils presented as unfiltered. They were definitely affected by oxidation, except for the fact that they were stored in air-conditioned tanks.
Look for oils that have described on the label other elements than the classic ones, acidity, calories, carbohydrates, etc. Look for oils that have peroxide levels listed, K232, K268 or 270, DK. If there is, look for a negative DK, less than -0.001. This means that no blends with other types of non-extra virgin oils have been made. If polyphenols are also mentioned, it's even better. Because there is not always room on the label, QR codes have recently appeared. And we use it. By scanning you arrive at a product page where these items should be mentioned.
Valuable oils of high gastronomic quality have medals glued or printed on the label. And be careful here. An oil produced in one year has a medal obtained only in the following year. For example, an oil produced in 2022 cannot have a medal from 2021 or 2023. It is misleading advertising, although it is not false, the brand or the processor obtained the medal, not the oil.
If you want a gourmet oil, find out about the brand and the oil beforehand. If there are medals, go to the competitions website. These oils are not cheap, you have to be careful about throwing money away.
Last but not least, observe the store, the way the oil is stored. If it is excessively hot in the store or the storage conditions seem inappropriate, look for another place to shop.
Ask to taste the oil and see if you like it. Ultimately it's a matter of taste.

The most awarded Romanian brand of olive oil

In 2023 the brand Eliad with the SuperPremium oil was awarded a silver medal at the Athena International Olive Oil Competition, a gold medal at the Berlin Global Olive Oil Awards and a gold medal in London.

"In the past, the Eliada brand has won a gold medal at the Athena IOOC, but under the name of the processor at that time, it was an uncorrected mistake by the organizer who did not understand how an oil produced in Greece is sent to the competition by a company from Romania" explains the entrepreneur.

Oil processor Eliad, Agriston Ltd., obtained awards this year with similar oils, produced from the same olive varieties, and in Tokyo (one of the most important competitions for processors), two silver medals) and in New York, a gold medal.