35 replies to this topic

[Michael]

Have you (or anyone else that cares to reply) seen [VF's] CoAs at any of their client stores?

Yes: I've seen them at their flagship store and in one of their client stores.

[somecallmetim]

My vote for best olive oil would have to go to a company called Castillo de Piñar. They offer an organic extra virgin olive oil that is harvested by hand, cold press-extracted within hours of harvest, and they bottle the oils in miron glass. Need I say more?

Well, the only information they provide on the chemistry of their oils is the claim (not linked to any chemical analysis) of a FFA <0.2 (by which one trusts they mean <0.2%), so it could be harvested by hand and cold pressed within hours of harvest, and still be crap . And, of course, you have nothing but their say-so on production.

This is incorrect. The company offers an oil analysis here.

According to Agbiolab Inc: "Regarding UV absorbance, though the standards call for K232 below 2.5 and K270 below 0.22, superior olive oil will exhibit K232 values below 1.85 (2 for organic oil) and K270 below 0.17. As mentioned before, low values correlate with high-quality oil, as UV absorbance
detects early and later states of oxidation." Well, Castillo de Pinar's K232 is at 1.78 and K270 at .14 which, according to these standards, correlates with a high-quality oil.

The use of Miron glass is actually a bad sign, since (a) mauve glass is actually likely one of the worst colors for olive oil storage containers, and (b) the fact that they would use it suggests that they may be engaged in other un- or counterproductive practices under the spell of woo.

Have you personally tried miron glass bottles?

[ihatesnow]

http://www.foodfraud.org/

[hav]

The use of Miron glass is actually a bad sign, since (a) mauve glass is actually likely one of the worst colors for olive oil storage containers, and (b) the fact that they would use it suggests that they may be engaged in other un- or counterproductive practices under the spell of woo.

Have you personally tried miron glass bottles?

I think that was a natural mistake to equate Miron violet glass to the colbalt-blue graphed in that link. To paraphrase Tweety Bird, "They look an awful lot alike." Miron's blockage of everything from 420 nm to 730 nm, however, is pretty unique.

Here's another UK vendor page for their product with some additional claimed study info:

Violet-glass the glass that offers better protection

Quote Swiss biologist Dr. H. Niggli.
‘ “The experiments with violetglass showed a significant better storage capacity, this provide a plain calmer fluctuation and an auspicious energy loss. Violetglass (allowing light for ca.380-420 and ca.730-1040nm spectrum) offers an optimal protection for: remedy, essences, tinctures, (natural) cosmetics, (food) supplements, wine, oils, etc.” .'

Photons (light) enriched globules packed in Violetglass, brown glass and plastic containers where examined by Fraunhofer Institute ( Munich ) ,in a test of comparison. Most interesting is the comparison with the brown-glass container witch is mostly prescribed for pharmaceutics products. Results of the test of comparison after 4 weeks: Violetglass absorbs the visible light spectrum (ca. 450-720 nm).This provides optimal protection of products.

I think that must be an unpublished study, cited above, because I can't find it. Or it could just all be vendor hype. Although this products blockage range is not quite as wide as the US vendor's specs, if this blockage range is a fact, it still matches up reasonably well with the study showing olive oil's peak sensitivity at 417 nm and 668 nm. They also claim it was used by the ancient Egyptians, I assume to store their olive oil. Alchemists, too. When PubMed doesn't have the research, it's nice to have alchemy to fall back on.

Howard

Edited by hav, 21 December 2013 - 07:18 AM.

[Michael]

My vote for best olive oil would have to go to a company called Castillo de Piñar.

Well, the only information they provide on the chemistry of their oils is the claim (not linked to any chemical analysis) of a FFA <0.2 (by which one trusts they mean <0.2%) [...].

This is incorrect. The company offers an oil analysis here.

I stand corrected. I did make a good-faith effort to try and find such on their site; where did you actually find the link?

According to Agbiolab Inc: "Regarding UV absorbance, though the standards call for K232 below 2.5 and K270 below 0.22, superior olive oil will exhibit K232 values below 1.85 (2 for organic oil) and K270 below 0.17. [...]." Well, Castillo de Pinar's K232 is at 1.78 and K270 at .14 which, according to these standards, correlates with a high-quality oil.

It certainly seems to be a very good quality oil. (It would also be better if they had DAG ratios and PPP, but this is still rarely done, and from the stated chemistry I really do take it that the quality of the oil is likely excellent). Unfortunately, they still don't give one of the most important parameters for health, which is the phenolic count.

The use of Miron glass is actually a bad sign, since (a) mauve glass is actually likely one of the worst colors for olive oil storage containers, and (b) the fact that they would use it suggests that they may be engaged in other un- or counterproductive practices under the spell of woo.

Have you personally tried miron glass bottles?

No: based on the known physical effects, I wouldn't use it. I keep my oil in amber or dark green bottles, and in a dark cupboard, wine chiller, or wine cylinder when not in use.

I think that was a natural mistake to equate Miron violet glass to the colbalt-blue graphed in that link. To paraphrase Tweety Bird, "They look an awful lot alike." Miron's blockage of everything from 420 nm to 730 nm, however, is pretty unique.

I'm not simply equating them. The data show that it offers only very modest protection in the key 400-417 nm range, and nothing in the lower UVA range. In fact, the manufacturer subscribes to woo-woo "Biophotonic" theory and touts the free passage of UV light as a "feature" of their material:

MIRON violetglass does not allow light from the visible spectrum to penetrate (with the exception of violet radiation) but
is transparent in the infrared spectrum (figure 3 and 5). Black glass doesn’t allow any visible light to go through and is
also transparent in the IR spectrum (figure 3 and 4). The most important difference between these two glass types is
that black glass fully absorbs UVA and violet frequencies without allowing any transmission to occur, whilst MIRON vio-
letglass is permeable for these frequencies. These wavelengths partially enter MIRON violetglass, giving it a unique
quality: impermeable in the visible light spectrum from blue to red but open to penetration of UVA, violet and IR frequen-
cies. Due to this special combination, sensitive materials stored in MIRON violetglass are highly protected against the
processes of decomposition caused by light influences from the visible spectrum and gives it the added benefit of the
positive effects that result from UVA, violet and IR frequencies

"Miron Violet glass blocks the complete spectrum of visible light with the exception of the violet part. At the same time it allows a certain part to be permeable for radiation in the spectral range of UV-A, and infra red light. This unique combination offers optimal protection against the ageing processes that are released by visible light, thus lengthening durability and potency of products."

Here's another UK vendor page for their product with some additional claimed study info:

Violet-glass the glass that offers better protection

Swiss biologist Dr. H. Niggli.
‘ “The experiments with violetglass showed a significant better storage capacity, this provide a plain calmer fluctuation and an auspicious energy loss. Violetglass (allowing light for ca.380-420 and ca.730-1040nm spectrum) offers an optimal protection for: remedy, essences, tinctures, (natural) cosmetics, (food) supplements, wine, oils, etc.” .'

Right — and "allowing light for ca.380-420 nm" is exactly what you most want to avoid.

Edited by Michael, 21 December 2013 - 01:59 PM.

[hav]

Oh, come on Michael. It may be hard to get an exact reading of that Miron glass transmittance graph only 3 nm away from the 420 nm cutoff but it only looks like a value of around 10% at the most to my eye. Sorry for giving you the benefit of the doubt. Your denigrating the effectiveness of that type of glass just isn't objective. And your equating miron glass with colbalt-blue is just plain wrong since the transmittance graphs bear no resemblance to one another, with miron clearly superior in the wavelengths of relevance. Adding that to the fact that indoor uv levels are so low to begin with, bashing an olive oil manufacturer for choosing miron glass for their bottles is way over the top.

I think if you want to slam miron glass for whatever your personal reasons may be, lack of independent peer reviewed research would be a better basis. I couldn't find anything in Pubmed actually testing it against brown or green glass. Or any research testing any kind of glass for the preservation of olive oil. The study I posted was it. Seems to me the more objective suggestion, in light of all the unknowns, would be to not buy olive oil in any kind of translucent glass container. Which would exclude almost all of the boutique-style suppliers. I've only ever seen tin cans and on rare occasions, ceramic as an alternate. I suspect the only reason olive oil companies use translucent glass is to make it look pretty on the shelf. And because selling wine packaged that same way has been so successful. More to do with marketing than science. Personally, I reject most of that myself. Because I don't believe indoor uv levels are high enough to warrant excessive shielding of either my olive oil or my body, for that matter; I do not apply uv suntan lotion indoors either.

There is one piece of c60/evoo independent research, however. The Baati study. This section has photos the researchers sent one of our members showing it in what looks like a clear pyrex beaker. They mentioned a concern about uv light exposure in their research paper and their solution was to store it in a cool, dry, dark cabinet. Where periodic testing demonstrated it kept for 4 years. I keep my mixed c60/evoo in clear Kimax bottles and store them in a cool dry cabinet like the Baati folks did.

Howard