Is Olive Oil Gluten Free? Read Here

For average people, olive oil can be ideal for cooking. However, gluten sensitive people have to take more caution with the common ingredients they use in everyday meals, including quality oils used for frying, texturing, or marinating basic recipes.

Is olive oil gluten free? Yes! All olive oil types and olive oil products are considered gluten free, however this is only pure olive oil. Cheaper, and poorly produced oil is at greater risk of cross contamination. Flavored olive oils may also include gluten proteins.

If you’re not sensitive to gluten, you may be looking to cut it out as part of a weight loss programme. Cooking oils are perhaps not the best thing when it comes to losing weight, but a light olive oil can still go a long way. Other oils, such as canola oil, even contain healthy unsaturated fats. Get more information here Is Canola Oil Gluten Free?

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Gluten free oils are easily accessible on most store shelves, and those contaminated tend to contain minimal amounts of gluten proteins. Still, you should be careful when purchasing vegetable oil, sunflower oil, or virgin olive oil if you suffer from celiac diseases. 

What is Olive Oil?

Olive oil is a natural fat derived by pressing entire olives and collecting the oil from olives, a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Area. It’s a frequent ingredient in cuisine, whether it’s for frying or as a salad dressing. Some cosmetics, medications, soaps, and conventional oil lamp fuels include it. In various faiths, it is also used for other purposes.

Plain olive oil has long been considered a healthy source of fat, however despite having no amounts of gluten it does contain saturated fats. This is present in most olive oil brands and alternative types of olive oil. Including basil olive oil, lavendar balsamic, dill olive oil, garlic olive oil, and butter olive oil – vegan included.

By definition olive oil is the result of pressing ripe olives, but these saturated fats make eating regular olives a healthier choice, Saturated fats are the fat type that will lead to artery clogging, a risk factor in heart disease and other cardivascular issues.

Still, extra virgin olive oil and culinary vinegars can be a delicious and tasty addition to any salad. You could even throw in some actual olive fruits on top, as the fruit is also naturally gluten free. In moderation, sweet extra virgin olive oil won’t be the end of you.

Grilled foods also pair well with olive oil, and grilled or roasted vegetables are popularly drizzled in olive oil in Europe. Average people may prefer some fried food or salad dressing, but trying out additional ingredients with your food items can lead to pleasant surprises.

Organic olive oil is also a good healthier alternative, and tends to be more environmentally conscious in their production. If you’re looking through different olive oil brands, then organic olive oil is a solid choice for your dressings and cooking needs.

While we know virgin and extra virgin olive oil gluten is only likely to appear from cross contamination, using olive oil for flavor can elevate a meal. The taste olive oil produces is a subtle flavor and mild flavor, making it an ideal dressing, especially in dishes such as hummus which drizzles oil on top. Check out this article for an in-depth explanation Is Hummus Gluten Free?

If you’re looking for a more spectacular flavor, then try any of the variously marketted oils branded with a different zip of flavor. You can find a more rich flavor (with Pompeian smooth extra virgin olive oil), a smooth flavor (with Paesano sky organics olive oil), or a smoke flavor (although this is usually one of many examples of gluten used for flavoring). 

Are you also wondering Is Olive Oil Vegan? Find out here!

Olive Oil, Vrigin, and Extra Virgin

I’m sure we’ve all heard about virgin olive oil, but perhaps not all of us know what it is. In truth, the taste olive oil produces in the virgin process is supposedly more hygenic and pure. In older times, the label indicated the oil was pressed by the feet of virginal women, much like wine.

However, today a virgin olive oil indicates that an oil is pressed without the use of intense industrial chemicals, or too much heat. Instead a slower, cold press is used for a more pure product with less dilution. Mary Ruth’s ice pressed extra virgin olive oil, is just one example on the olive oils list. 

Unlike the manufacturing process, extra virgin olive oil is actually an indicator of taste. While you can buy unrefined olive oil abroad with a subtle flavor, the label of extra virgin is awarded to an olive oil after a series of tests are performed. 

A very low acidity rating, with no defects in the pure oil, and a delicate flavor of fruit make a virgin olive oil into extra virgin olive oil. Some people believe extra virgin oils to be of superior quality, but in reality the distinction between virgin and extra virgin has very little to do with product quality. 

You can find premium quality organic olive oil with both the virgin and extra virgin label, and the same product quality as each other. Olive oils pressed using chemicals however, do not boast any superior quality products, and should be bought with caution.

Check out this article to know What Are Some Gluten-Free Oils?

Gluten Free Brands of Olive Oil

Fresh olives can be grown in many places, so you can end up with various differences in the oils produced. Greek olives for example are very different from more full bodied, flavorful Coratina olives. Food additives can also contaminate your oil, so let’s see which brands of gluten free olive oil you can trust:

• Pompeian Light Taste Olive Oil
• Pompeian M.G. Pappas Savory Olive Le Veneziane Botticelli (Pompeian olive oils are ideal for any meal) 
• Naturally Gluten Free Pompeian Mild Taste Olive Oil
• Botticelli Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Bertolli Olive Oil
• Ellora Farms Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Ellora Farms Organic USDA Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Mary Ruth’s Ice Pressed Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Members’ Mark Olive Oil Non-Stick Cooking Spray
• MADHAVA Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Baklouti Chili Olive Oil (Baklouti Chili Olive Oil is made by combining fresh, premature healthy olives with a nearly equal quantity of fresh, intact green Baklouti chilli peppers)
• Coratina Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Filipp Berio Olive Oil
• Mantova Olive Oil Non-GMO
• Palermo Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Rosemary Extra Virgin Olive Oil USDA Organic
• Tragano Olive Oil

No matter what kinds of cooking methods are calling you to use olive oil, always remember to check the list of ingredients. Food additives among common ingredients can go unseen, and lead to you ingesting gluten thaks to the additional ingredients.

We also have some alternative here that you may want to look at. Is Soybean Oil Gluten Free?

Is all Cooking Oil Gluten Free?

All cooking oil are gluten free, in theory. Even if a food claims to be gluten free, you may still find trace amounts of gluten protein as a result of cross contamination. Additional ingredients on the list of ingredients can also trigger gluten sensitivity in people.

Additional ingredients, despite food claims, generally arise from the manufacturing or bottling process. So next time you pick up a quality glass bottle of olive oil, make sure to check if it may contain trace smounts of the gluten protein. 

The cheaper bargain olive oil is more likely to contain gluten than a quality name brand such as Pompeian M.G. Pappas Savory Olive Le Veneziane Botticelli. So if you’re gluten free then consider maybe going just that little bit further for a name brand.

Gluten Cross Contamination

Even a quality glass bottle of organic olive oil brands can be contaminated. This is rarely done on purpose and is usually a quirk of the bottling or manufacturing process. However, it can be added purposefully to achieve a less subtle flavor or oil. 

Topics about olive oil favorings can drag on, but tampering with the already delicate flavor usually requires gluten. Additional ingredients that will likely upset your celiac disease or non-celiac gluten sensitivity. Be careful when picking up something like butter olive oil.

Since most food manufacturers produce a wide range of products, food factories will process any number of food items in a day. Some of these foods will be targetted to different markets, in different parts of the country, and be made entirely differently.

Large multinational corporations want to maximise profit, so having one processing plant of factory produce multiple products makes sense. What this does mean, however, is that your olive oil could be getting pressed or bottled in the same facility that gluten containing products are being handled.

This will make your olive oil no longer gluten free, as the chance of cross contamination in the delicate flavor oil is too much for most celiacs. Unwanted additional ingredients from bad handling practices lead to plenty of upset intestines. 

Unless you’re importing olive oil right from Italy, checked in Rome by a tenth generation Sicilian olive oil master using olives from Thrace, you are unlikely to ever totally avoid the risk of contamination. The best practice may be to find a local brand, usually specialised in olive oil, that you can trust.

If you live in the United States, then Californian brands will be your best bet. The West Coast climate is perhaps the best at resembling the Mediterranean, although still far from perfect. Running the risk of contamination can be fine however, as the risk is present in so many foods it can be impossible to ignore at times. 

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