One of the great gourmet products that we have in our land is the extra virgin olive oil.
En Spain (rather in the interior-center of Andalusia) there are about 400.000 olive growers who transfer their production to a total of 1.755 oil mills. Spain generates a third of all the world's olive oil production and these are numbers that are frightening.
To specify a little more, Andalusia is the region of Spain where more oil is produced since two of its provinces. Jaén and Córdoba they are those that generate 64% of all the annual oil in the country. For this, Andalusia is known worldwide as the first producer of oil made of olives.
And after this little introduction, comes the question… Can olive oil be frozen?
Perhaps some of you think not, when you see how the appearance of the oil at low temperatures takes on a somewhat "strange" appearance, with small balls or white spots in the oil.
Well, the answer is yes, it can be frozen. The white balls that appear in the oil does not mean that it is going to go bad or has lost qualities. It is due to a molecular process. Basically we will explain that the basic molecule of the oil is the triglyceride and between them they are different. Not all freeze at the same temperature and this causes some white balls to appear that do not give us a good thorn at all, but, when we return our oil to room temperature (between 12-22º) these balls will disappear as if by art. magic and we can continue consuming our olive oil without any problem.
El oil of virgin olive (extra or not) it can be frozen as a storage process and consumed after a while without any problem, as we do with other types of food and products. Of course, it is recommended to consume it in the shortest possible time once it has thawed. This is due to the fact that its oxidation process advances at a higher speed and now we would run the risk that our precious liquid gold loses its properties and even becomes in poor condition.
So now you know, it is possible to freeze olive oil and thaw it again if you don't plan on consuming it quickly. Even so, we want to remind you that high quality extra virgin olive oil has a long shelf life if we preserve it well: this means storing it in places where it is not exposed to direct sunlight and it is kept at room temperature without sudden changes. We hope this information has been useful to you.
