The “fridge test for olive” oil is when you put a bottle of olive oil in the refrigerator to see if it turns solid or “freezes.” This widely touted method is supposed to tell you whether the olive oil is a high-quality pure olive oil. If the olive oil turns solid in the bottle when chilled in the fridge, the olive oil is real. It is usually stated that this test is good for extra-virgin olive oil. Does this method work? No, the olive oil test is unreliable and will not tell you whether you have a high quality oil. In this article, I will explain why the olive oil fridge test does not work.
Why Does Olive Oil Turn Solid in the Fridge?
Many olive oils will begin to solidify in the refrigerator. This solidification occurs as the waxes present in the oil begin to precipitate out of the oil and form a gel or crystalize, making the oil seem solid. This does not only happen to extra-virgin olive oil. Any type of olive oil, even refined a product, has the potential to turn cloudy in a cold refrigerator. They may form a gel-like consistency and will perhaps go solid. So, putting olive oil in the refrigerator is not a good way to test for quality or whether an oil is extra-virgin.
Not All Quality Olive Oils Turn Solid When Refrigerated
It is possible for a highly refined olive oil to turn solid in the fridge while a high-quality extra-virgin olive oil does not. There is no absolute way to predict how solid an olive oil will go as this depends on many factors, such as olive type, harvest time, etc. Extra virgin olive oil has fewer waxes and would likely go less solid, not more, but again, other factors intervene. Monounsaturated fats coagulate at colder temperatures so their presence will influence solidification as well as the amount of natural waxes contained in the oil.
I would expect most olive oil to at least turn cloudy but if your olive oil does not go solid, this does not necessarily mean it is not pure olive oil.
All Oils Eventually Solidify At Cold Enough Temperatures
There are some temperature ranges given for different stages of olive oil “solidity” but these only tell you what will happen at what temp if it is going to happen, not the degree to which it will happen. Some olive oil makers will tell you that all olive oil goes solid if it gets cold enough, but that’s not saying much as all oils will eventually solidify at a cold enough temperature. How cold is cold enough in practical terms? It it’s colder than the typical refrigerator, than it’s moot for our purposes.
If an olive oil is subject to gelling, expect it to reach a consistency something like softened butter at 35-40 degrees Fahrenheit (1.7°C to 4.4°C). At temperatures below this, the olive oil will become more and more solid and seem as if it is “frozen.” Again, this is only a rule of thump and only valid if the olive oil is subject to such changes.
Other oils beside olive oil will solidify to some extent in the refrigerator so if your olive oil was adulterated with other oils, this would not change much. Basically, oils with high content of saturated fatty acids will solidify at colder temperatures due to them having naturally occurring waxes within the oil. Coconut oil and palm oil are examples. Even some canola oil will start to gel up in the fridge.
It is quite possible that a high quality extra virgin olive oil will never completely solidify in a refrigerator kept at the typical temperature of around 40 degrees F.
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