# Olive Oil question (food safety-related) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 21, 2011, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olive-oil-question-food-safety-related/589883 "2011-07-21T17:49:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olive-oil-question-food-safety-related/589883/1 "2011-07-21T17:49:31Z")
No, I don’t need suggestions on how to cook or season with it. I’ve been buying extra virgin olive oil for my larder for a comparatively short period (that is, a few years), and my question relates to its packaging. Every other oil I have ever stocked in my cupboards (except perhaps peanut) has come in a bottle with a screw cap that I could tighten. When I tighten the cap on the EVOO, however, the threads slip past one another, and leave me with a loosely-capped bottle of oil. Why is this? I tried reasoning from the direction of: why do the other oils cap so tightly? And my only guess for that one is that it prevents the free introduction of new oxygen molecules into the container, and thus retards the process by which the oils can go rancid. If this is true, I wonder if olive oil (and perhaps peanut oil) does not go rancid by its very nature, in much the same way that honey does not spoil. That strikes me as unsatisfying, however. Even if EVOO is not subject to that kind of degradation, that wouldn’t seem to be a good reason to _prevent_ the user from capping the bottle tightly. Then I remembered something I heard on the radio about the home user preserving his own sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil. The gist of the advice was: “DON’T DO IT; IT’S NOT SAFE; YOU COULD BE PUTTING YOURSELF AND YOUR DINNER GUESTS AT RISK OF CONSUMING BOTULISM,” and other such cheerful stuff. I know that the botulinus bacterium is anaerobic, and that it thrives best when it _is_ isolated from oxygen, but is that the answer? Or is there some more mundane reason for packaging my olive oil so I can’t feel comfortable about storing the bottle on its side? Thanks in advance for the education. ---
**Author:** ![JohnM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/848f3c/32.png) [@JohnM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnM)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olive-oil-question-food-safety-related/589883/2 "2011-07-21T18:03:17Z")
I think it is more likely some oddity with the packaging of your preferred brand of EVOO. Either that, or you overtightened the top and stripped the threads. I’ve used probably a dozen different brands, and all those with screwtops tightened securely. ---
**Author:** ![JohnM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/848f3c/32.png) [@JohnM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnM)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olive-oil-question-food-safety-related/589883/3 "2011-07-21T18:24:23Z")
And as to the botulism issue, that is not olive oil specific but just due to the nature of covering something in oil; you’re excluding air, thereby creating an anaerobic environment. Whether the lid is sealed is really irrelevant, as there’s already air in the bottle. Commercially infused oils usually contain additional ingredients such as acids to impede bacterial growth. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olive-oil-question-food-safety-related/589883/4 "2011-07-21T18:24:49Z")
I’m pretty sure the botulism thing happens with items with moisture in them, like garlic cloves and the like. I’ve never heard anything bad about infusing dried herbs in oil. ---
**Author:** ![Terraplane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@Terraplane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terraplane)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olive-oil-question-food-safety-related/589883/5 "2011-07-21T18:32:50Z")
I don’t know why some olive oils have that loose top. I’ve had a few of them like that as well. I don’t think it’s intentional, or if it is maybe it’s just cheaper? I do know that olive oil will go rancid faster than most other cooking oils. And as for botulism, I think the oil needs to contain some kind of food item, such as sun dried tomatoes, garlic, whatever, before the spores can grow. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olive-oil-question-food-safety-related/589883/6 "2011-07-21T19:18:38Z")
The only time I’ve seen that on a bottle of olive oil is when I’ve stripped the threads of the screw top. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olive-oil-question-food-safety-related/589883/7 "2011-07-21T19:30:30Z")
I’ve been using EVOO for over 20 years, multiple brands, and this has never happened to me even once. My vote: Operator error. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_the\_Turtle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_the_turtle/32/2926_2.png) [@Fear\_the\_Turtle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_the_Turtle)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olive-oil-question-food-safety-related/589883/8 "2011-07-21T20:12:43Z")
Happens to me with every bottle I buy - Stater Brothers Brand ---
**Author:** ![I\_Am\_The\_Lorax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19adc/32.png) [@I\_Am\_The\_Lorax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Am_The_Lorax)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2011, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olive-oil-question-food-safety-related/589883/9 "2011-07-23T01:15:00Z")
I’ve noticed the same thing with the olive oil I buy at Aldi’s. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2011, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olive-oil-question-food-safety-related/589883/10 "2011-07-23T03:55:00Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > I’ve been using EVOO for over 20 years, multiple brands, and this has never happened to me even once. > > My vote: Operator error. I’ve been using screw-on caps for over 50 years, and I have experienced this problem occasionally with certain brands of various items. My vote: Crap design/crap materials. ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2011, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olive-oil-question-food-safety-related/589883/11 "2011-07-23T03:58:09Z")
yar, I’ve had it happen to me too. It’s probably not random but I haven’t noticed which bottles do it. I have, however, a habit of infusing my own oils, and now I’m paranoid. Going to throw out my year-old bottle of oil with once-fresh rosemary in it, though I haven’t had a problem yet. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2011, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olive-oil-question-food-safety-related/589883/12 "2011-07-23T07:07:00Z")
I’ve experienced this with more than half the brands I’ve tried, and it has nothing to do with stripped threads. You twist it normally, and instead of reaching the point where it feels tight, it gets a little tight, then loosens up again. It’s similar to the way some cars’ gas caps work. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2011, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olive-oil-question-food-safety-related/589883/13 "2011-07-23T16:19:05Z")
my caps are loose, too, I have several bottles with different flavors.