​What does olive oil acidity means?

Although we always talks about olive oil, especially about its packaging by blister packing machine or liquid filling and sealing machine, the introduction hardly touches upon olive oil acidity. So, what is olive oil acidity? Is it better for the olive oil to have lower acidity?

Olive oil acidity actually refers to the weight percentage of free fatty acids in olive oil, i.e., the content of free fatty acids in 100-g olive oil. It’s a critical index to judge olive oil’s quality.

If containing only natural acid, olive oil can be of acidity as low as possible. High-acidity olive oil can be oxidized easily and loose its effect. On the other hand, low acidity can also be caused by post processing. For example, refined olive oil is of low acidity and have little nutritive value. Therefore, without post processing, the lower acidity is the better.

Furthermore, what is the most proper acidity for olive oil? As the standard of International Olive Oil Council and European Union states, it’s safe for extra virgin olive oil to have acidity lower than 0.8 and for the virgin olive oil to have acidity lower than 2.0. Besides, the acidity of these two kinds of olive oil is natural, so it’s better for it to be lower.

There is also some tips for olive oil identification. First of all, good-quality olive oil looks bright, normally in light yellow, lime-green, blue-green, blue and even blue black. But abominable olive oil is turbid, not glossy and dark. Secondly, good olive oil smells fruity while bad olive oil smells decaying, musty and metallic. Lastly, we can taste them. The former tastes smooth with some bitterness and some spicy and doesn’t irritate out throat. But tasting the latter, we can feel either peculiar or nothing.