What Does Cold Pressed Mean?

Terms like “dry roasted” and “slow cooked” appear on the labels of many food items and consumers know what to expect when they read them, but the phrases found on bottles of olive oil are rarely seen anywhere else. The International Olive Council categorizes olive oil based on how and when it was pressed, but the terminology the organization uses does not mean much to most consumers. This article will explain what all of the phrases you see on bottles of olive oil mean and why “cold-pressed” and “extra virgin” are the terms you should look for. 

The pressing techniques used to extract oil from ripe olives have been used for thousands of years, but modern technology allows growers to use heat and chemicals to recover even more oil. The oil extracted from olives that have already been pressed is not as tasty or nutritious and usually finds its way into products that list “olive oil” as one of their ingredients, but it can also be found in bottles on supermarket shelves. You can avoid disappointment by checking olive oil labels for these two terms:

• Extra virgin or first press: The best olive oil is extracted during the first press and called extra virgin. This oil has the highest concentration of nutrients and the most intense flavor and aroma. To be branded extra virgin, olive oil must be extracted during the first press and meet the International Olive Council’s oleic acid standards. 
• Cold-pressed: The heat used to extract the last traces of oil from olives greatly diminishes the quality of the final product. Heat is not needed during the first press, which is why all extra virgin or first press olive oils are also cold-pressed. 

Why Is Cold-Pressed Oil Better?

Cold-pressed olive oil is considered superior because it has more flavor, a stronger aroma and far more nutrients than oils created using heat and chemicals. While taste is subjective and there may be people who actually prefer the taste of regular olive oil, the nutritional benefits of extra virgin olive oil can be measured and quantified. These benefits include:

• Higher levels of vitamin E and vitamin K.
• Higher concentrations of natural antioxidants like oleocanthal and oleuropein that protect against heart disease by preventing LDL cholesterol from oxidizing. 
• More abundant fatty acids like Omega-3, Omega-6 and oleic acid.

The Benefits of Cold-pressed Olive Oil

The FDA says that about a third of the calories we consume each day should come from fat, but not all fats are created equal. Saturated fat is solid at room temperature and has been linked to elevated heart disease and cancer risks, but the polyunsaturated fat in olive oil could actually protect against heart attacks and strokes. When researchers studied the health benefits of saturated and unsaturated fat, they concluded that the risk of heart disease is far lower when 15% of daily calories come from polyunsaturated fat.

Just how much polyunsaturated fat lowers heart attack risks was studied by a team of researchers who in 2014 asked more than 7,000 men and women considered at high risk of developing heart disease to follow either a low-fat diet or a diet high in olive oil. They discovered that eating olive oil every day reduced the risk of developing heart disease by as much as 35% and almost cut the chances of suffering a fatal heart attack in half.

Olive oil is also packed with antioxidants that fight free radicals in the body to prevent inflammation. One study found that 50 milliliters of extra virgin olive oil could treat pain almost as effectively as ibuprofen. The protection olive oil provides against inflammation could be its greatest health benefit as it is the inflammation that builds slowly over years or decades that contributes to debilitating and deadly conditions ranging from diabetes to cancer.