Extra virgin olive oil is officially a medicine

“It’s true, believe me it happened”, and it’s in all the newspapers that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the strict government body that supervises the regulation of food and pharmaceutical products, which will be distributed on American soil, has revisited the definition of extra virgin olive oil from health food to medicine. Americans have not closed their eyes to the increasingly numerous and solid scientific evidence of the clinical effectiveness of yellow gold or Mr. EVOO (as the Anglo-Saxons fondly call it) in the prevention of lethal cardiovascular diseases and cognitive deficits typical of the elderly, as well as than in reducing the risk of silent type II diabetes mellitus.

And perhaps not everyone knows that the daily intake of extra virgin olive oil is useful in reducing the risk of breast cancer thanks to its great anti-inflammatory and nutrigenomic properties. The Yankees did not need any other evidence to proceed and, as often happens, they beat the legislators of the old Mediterranean continent to the punch, where the thousand-year-old oleum oliva was born, spreading from Syria, home to the first crops of olive trees ( Olea europaea), to the point of becoming an authoritative signature of “made in Italy” cuisine, and beyond. Recently, in fact, extra virgin olive oil has been rediscovered as a soothing ointment for skin protection, thanks to its squalene content, from which the more stable squalane originates (a saturated hydrocarbon of terpene nature) used widely in cosmetics. modern, but that’s another story

Correct storage
But what precautions to use to avoid damaging Mr. EVOO? In order not to alter its nutraceutical potential, it should be remembered that Mr. EVOO is very demanding and prefers:

be stored at a temperature between 14 and 18 degrees; while, it does not like high temperatures or temperatures close to or below zero;
be kept in small (maximum 500 milliliters) well-closed, always clean containers made of glass (opaque or dark), porcelain or stainless steel, in cool places away from aromatic contamination. Although tin is a good compromise for short periods, food-grade plastic should never be used. Remembering, however, that in catering the Italian law law 161 of 30 October 2014 (article 18, paragraph 1 c) prescribes the use of closed, labeled and non-refillable containers, while prohibiting the use of pleasant and artistic cruets or cruets ” domestic workers”.
do not come into contact with oxygen and therefore do not let it remain for long periods in half-empty containers, even if hermetically sealed.