Cooks who for various reasons prefer to avoid soy and canola oils have moved into such products as rice bran oil, grapeseed oil, olive oil, and peanut oil – and even coconut oil in some cases.
The recent practice in the USA of diverting peanut crops into the production of ethanol has meant that food grade peanuts have been scarcer and more expensive. Likewise peanut oil. Olive oil, grapeseed oil and rice bran oil are also somewhat more expensive than the bog standard canola and soy that provide the bulk of supermarket cooking oils.
Recent disturbing experience at a number of Asian food suppliers and supermarkets suggests we need to pay a little more attention when we buy these food oils. What you will likely find is a container clearly labelled “Grapeseed Oil” or “Peanut Oil”, or “Olive Oil”, etc, and when you look at the (very) fine print list of ingredients on the back you will find, for example, “Grapeseed Oil, Vegetable Oil”. In other words we are not getting pure grapeseed oil at all, or olive oil or peanut oil, but a blend that has been adulterated with God knows what. There is no indication in the large print that we are dealing with a blend.
Given that we are for whatever reason deliberately avoiding these generic “vegetable oils” when we elect to pay a little more for our olive or grapeseed or peanut oil etc, it is no good news to find that up to half of the more expensive product may consist of the very oils we are trying to avoid. (Convention rules that ingredients are listed in descending order.)
The message, as always, remains: Check the fine print panel on your groceries! You can still get the pure product, but you will need to pay attention.
I just checked my Lupi Olive Oil (3 litres) and that seems fine Dave. Tin Can.
I also checked my SunFlower Oil (4 litres) and that seems fine from Goodman Fielders.
I have an account with Gilmours from my CP days and that is where I get my bulk supplies.
Tatiana can be a bit heavy handed with the oils as all Russian’s seem to be when cooking.
Love Henry
100215 at 0830 hours
Comment by Henry — February 15, 2010 @ 7:26 am
Lupi olive oil is generally OK, if at times a touch oxidised from long storage. Most kiwis aren’t all that wise to the difference until they start tasting some of our local produce, but that can get expensive indeed.
Sunflower Oil tends to be at the less expensive end and is less likely to be diluted. I do a good deal of my shopping in Lim Chhouw’s in Henderson, or Moshim’s, or Bulk Barn or Bin Inn, and these “discount” sources can be a problem, and even more so when the list of ingredients on the back panel is in Chinese. Mind you, it is an occasional thrill to buy an item whose label is entirely in Chinese and then work out what it’s likely to be.
(Why do I shop in these places? Because they have an extensive range of foods and food items — pulses especially — that are just not available in your average supermarket, and well worth including in your diet. On the whole, economical, too.)
Dave
Comment by Dave — February 15, 2010 @ 9:24 am