Shopping for culinary oils can be confusing because what looks golden and appealing in a clear bottle may turn out to be flavourless and lacking in nutrition.
Organically grown and produced
Make sure that the seeds, nuts or fruits that will be pressed to make your oil are grown without chemicals using agricultural methods that are sustainable and not harmful to the environment.
First cold-pressed
Most conventionally produced oils today are extracted at high temperature using chemical solvents. Cold-pressed oils are oils which are produced using a simple mechanical method without added heat. Heat treatment may increase the yield of the oil, but it also has a negative effect on the flavour and nutritional properties of the oil. Clearspring oils are all first cold pressed.
Unrefined
After pressing, traditional oils undergo simple filtering which removes sediment, they are then bottled. On the other hand, ordinary oils are refined at high temperature using chemical solvents, before undergoing further bleaching, refining and deodorising processes.
Please note that our sunflower frying oil is gently steamed-washed to allow the oil to be cooked at higher temperatures without a strong odour, so, it cannot be called "unrefined" but rest assured, it has not gone through any solvent extraction.
Dark bottle
Whereas solvent extracted, refined oils are more stable and can be bottles in clear glass bottle, cold-pressed oils need dark glass (green, brown or dark blue) to protect them from oxidising.
Good flavour and aroma
Good oils should taste fresh and delicious. For some oils like extra virgin olive oil, you should be able to recognise a good one by just smelling it. If you have the chance, try comparing them at markets, or at tastings.
Nutritional facts
The distinct disadvantage of solvent extraction in that all the flavour and most of the nutrition of the original oil seed is removed during the production process.
So read the labels and choose the oil that is best for you; you might want to look at the unsaturated fat content, the Omega 3, 6 and 9 balance, or the vitamin E content.
Find out about the nutritional values of Clearspring Oils here [1].
Intended use
You may manage to choose the best quality oil of all, but not knowing how to use it can spoil all that time and care! Companies that care about the oils indicate the optimum cooking temperature for their product. For example Clearspring Omega Blend [2] is only suitable for salads whereas Clearspring Sunflower frying oil [3] can undergo high temperatures and is ideal for frying purposes. For Clearspring oils cooking instructions, either check the bottle label or click here.
Special Olive Oil
Olive oil is amongst the best known and appreciated culinary oils. The designation of olive oil on labels is strictly defined and labels cannot use any type of wording when describing an olive oil.
- Extra-virgin olive oil: comes from cold pressing of the olives. There can be no refined oil in extra-virgin olive oil.
- Virgin olive oil: has an acidity less than 2%, and is judged to have a good taste. There can be no refined oil in virgin olive oil.
- Pure olive oil: oils labelled as pure olive oil or olive oil are usually a blend of refined olive oil and one of the above two categories of virgin olive oil.
- Olive oil: blend of virgin oil and refined oil, containing no more than 1.5% acidity. It commonly lacks a strong flavour.