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Time to change back to using traditional olive oil in cooking

Time to change back to using traditional olive oil in cooking

With warnings of shortages of sunflower oil and the rising prices of others, perhaps it is time to return to using olive oil?

ESPERANZA PELÁEZ

MALAGA.

Friday, 18 March 2022, 13:17

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War is an opportunity for speculators to profit. The warning of a shortage of sunflower oil, of which Ukraine and Russia are the world's leading producers, is leading to hoarding and self-interested price increases caused by the sharp rise in energy prices.

The surprising thing is to discover how, in only half a century, sunflower oil has become an essential part of people's diet, displacing olive oil, of which Spain is the world's leading producer, and which is recognised throughout the world as the healthiest fat.

The only reason for this is its low price and the fact that the population has embraced it as an acceptable alternative to the fats it has historically used, olive oil and lard.

In terms of world consumption of vegetable oils, sunflower is in fourth place. The first, by far, is palm oil, with 74.25 per cent of the market, followed by soybean oil (60.6%) and rapeseed oil (28.26%).

Fraudulent sales

This last oil, extracted from a seed of the mustard family, is very popular in France, but in Spain, the tragedy unleashed by the fraudulent sale of rapeseed oil which had previously been used in machinery, cut its chances of being competitive.

Sunflower oil has 20 per cent of the global market. It is followed by palm kernel, peanut, cottonseed and coconut, and the least consumed in the world, with only 3.2 per cent, is olive oil.

Spain produced 1,400,000 litres of olive oil last season, more than enough to supply the domestic market, and the current price of a litre of extra virgin olive oil in bulk, despite experiencing a large increase due to the price of electricity and fuel, is 3.75 euros/litre.

The difference between the oils is that Extra Virgen Olive Oil (AOVE) is a cold-pressed juice and the others are refined, a process that removes everything healthy from the seeds from which it is extracted.

Perhaps it is time to look to tradition, at least in gastronomy.

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