Is Cold Pressed Olive Oil the Same As Extra Virgin?

The world of olive oil is ripe with buzzwords: cold-pressed, extra virgin, organic, filtered, early harvest, and many others. One need only glance at the olive oil selection at a local grocery store to notice that most of the oils on the shelf are graced with one or many of these labels. But what does this olive oil jargon actually mean? Are these terms all marketing ploys? Is cold pressed olive oil the same as extra virgin? Do both words just mean organic? Which label is the most important? We’ll answer your most-pressing olive oil questions here to help you avoid googling in the grocery aisles.

How Olive Oil is Made

In order to understand the terms cold-pressed and extra virgin, you’ll first need a basic understanding of how olive oil is made. The basic steps in the olive oil production process are:

1. The olive trees are grown. Location, climate, and soil quality have a huge impact on the final olive oil product. It’s important that the olive grove is tended carefully year round.
2. The olives are harvested and cleaned. It’s important to get the timing right; olives harvested at different points in the season will taste different.
3. The olives are crushed. This process is called “milling” and involves mashing the olives into a paste to extract their natural oils. At Frantoio Grove, we mill our olives on site and begin the process immediately upon harvest in order to ensure the freshest possible olive oil.
4. The olive oil is mixed or “malaxed” which allows the olive oil droplets in the crushed-olive mixture to come together.
5. The olive oil is separated from the paste. This is technically the step where cold pressing comes into play, though temperature control is essential during all steps to avoid oxidation.
6. The olive oil is bottled. High quality olive oils are most often bottled in opaque glass containers. Some olive oils may go through additional filtering before reaching this point. For example, our oil is sparged with nitrogen before bottling.

What is Cold Pressed Olive Oil?

Historically, olive oil was separated from olive paste using a manually press made up of stone wheels and jute mats. During this pressing process, the use of chemicals or heat to extract extra oil from the paste was forbidden in order to ensure the highest-quality oil. There’s always a reason behind a rule: some oil producers would add hot water to their olive paste before running it through a second round of pressing. This extra step would extract additional oil from the paste, but at the expense of quality, since heat and oxygen exposure are quick to spoil delicate olive oil. The term cold pressed came to be used to signal that an olive oil producer never used heat or pressed the oil a second time. Cold pressed means quality over quantity.

Today, most olive oil producers use modern pressing techniques to separate oil and paste, such as a centrifuge, instead of traditional stone and jute presses. These modern techniques are still considered cold pressing, so long as no heat above 80oF or chemical agents make their way into the process.

While the term cold pressed olive oil specifically relates to separating of the oil from the paste, the spirit of the term cold pressed can and should be applied to all steps in olive oil production. For example, we think of cold pressed as a guiding principle. Exposure to heat or too much oxygen at any point in the production process can spoil an excellent olive oil, so we apply the mindset of cold pressed at all steps in our process.

How Olive Oil is Graded

Across the world, olive oils are graded based on their quality. Olive oil grades are universal standards and are enforced by the International Olive Council. Within the category of olive oils, the IOC identifies several grades. The not so great grades:

• Lampant olive oil: natural olive oil that is generally poor in quality and unfit for consumption without additional refining
• Refined olive oil: lampant olive oil whose defects have been treated by degumming, neutralization and bleaching. Some oils may be a blend of natural and refined oils.
• Olive-pomace oil: oils produced by treating the olive paste with chemicals or heat to extract extra oil after the first pressing

And the good grades:

• Virgin olive oil: naturally produced olive oil with low levels of defects and fatty acids
• Extra virgin olive oil: the gold standard; naturally produced olive oil that meets very strict standards for quality, taste, and chemical makeup

What are the Extra Virgin Olive Oil Standards?

To be considered extra virgin, olive oil must meet the following IOC standards:

• It cannot have free fatty acids above 0.8 grams per 100 grams as this would be a sign of oxidation or rancidity. (In California, this number is even stricter, at .5 grams per 100 grams.)
• It must have a median fruitiness rating above zero
• It must have a median defect score of zero, meaning it is free of defects
• It must be produced under 27°C (80°F)

What is Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil?

Organic is another term that shows up frequently on olive oil bottles. Whereas cold pressed refers to an oil’s method of production and extra virgin refers to its quality score, organic applies to the olives used to produce the oil.

According to the USDA, produce can be called organic only if no synthetic fertilizer or pesticide has been used in its soil for three years prior to harvest. So, an EVOO can be considered organic extra virgin olive oil provided it was produced with organic olives and it meets the strict IOC EVOO standards. Organic is a status that can be certified by the USDA, so look for third-party organic seals on olive oil bottles if you’re shopping for an organic EVOO.

What are the Key Differences Between EVOO and Cold Pressed Olive Oil?

Cold pressed and extra virgin are both indicators of olive oil quality, but they aren’t quite the same. The differences are:

• Extra virgin refers to an olive oil’s grade, a quality score, whereas cold pressed refers to how the oil is made.
• EVOOs require third-party certification, cold pressed oils do not.
• Cold pressed olive oils may also be EVOOs if they meet the EVOO standards.
• All EVOOs will have been cold pressed because any olive oil that is extracted by heat is disqualified as extra virgin.

Can Olive Oil be Extra Virgin and Cold Pressed?

Yes! All EVOOs have to have been produced under 27oC, so they are technically cold pressed, but not all cold pressed olive oils are necessarily EVOOs. An olive oil must be cold pressed in order to meet the EVOO qualification standards, but an oil that has been cold pressed and fails to meet another of the EVOO standards, will not be considered extra virgin.

Some sources will claim that not all EVOOs are cold pressed, arguing that these EVOOs aren’t produced using a traditional press. This isn’t true though, because cold pressed really refers to oil that hasn’t been treated with heat, not to the modernity of the tools used to separate the oil from the paste.

At Frantoio Grove, we produce high-quality, organic, cold-pressed EVOO. We use modern techniques, but believe in timeless taste. We don’t do it for the labels, though we are third-party certified. We do it because we care about producing the best tasting, highest quality oil possible. Read more about our commitment to cold pressed olive oil and try our cold pressed, organic EVOO for yourself today!