Does olive oil go off?

[Rachele]

The reason I ask is that I found a bottle of olive oil in the back of my cupboard today. It is several years out of date, but the bottle is unopened and still sealed. I'm usually very good with rotating oils and they never last that long anyway, so this one has slipped through the net.

Will the quality of the oil have deteriorated due to age? I know that the oil is not going to be harmful to me, but will it still taste as it should?

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

only one way of finding out. If it has gone off, it would taste and smell rancid.
But kept unopened in the dark I can't see why it would have gone off especially if the temperature has been sensible and not desperately hot. I don't as a rule take much notice of BB dates, I prefer to use a touch of common sense and taste things to see if they are OK. I suspect it will be fine tbh.

 

[Rachele]

I did actually try it yesterday and it tasted okay, so I used it. It's actually a chilli infused oil, so I think the fact that it has been stashed away in the cupboard for so long has enhanced the heat!

I always taste things too, my mantra is that if it looks okay, it smells okay and it tastes okay, the chances are it will be okay.

 

[crimsonghost747]

Seeing as it was unopened I'm not surprised that is tasted ok.
And yes, it it tastes ok then it's most likely ok... common sense really. :p

 

[Rachele]

Seeing as it was unopened I'm not surprised that is tasted ok.
And yes, it it tastes ok then it's most likely ok... common sense really. :p

I would have been a lot more hesitant had it stood open in the cupboard for years, as I think that would have had a detrimental effect on the quality and the taste of the oil after the air got to it, but I will use the bottle up pretty quickly so I am not too worried.

 

[OhioTom76]

You would definitely be able to smell it and taste it if it went rancid. That is actually one of the reasons I stopped using those oil pump spray bottles. They sounded like a good idea at the time, but on one occasion, I was out of olive oil and didn't feel like running to the store. I remembered that there was some olive oil in the pump spray bottle, so I opened it to use that - that's when the smell hit me, it was rancid. It made sense though, the more you keep pumping air into those bottles, the more you are expediting the oil going rancid. It basically doesn't make sense to fill those bottles all the way with oil, since it will go bad long before you even use it up.

 

[Rachele]

I think it's definitely something to do with the air getting to it. I've been using that bottle that I found and was discussing in the OP and it's fine - but it was unopened and kept in a cool dark cupboard.