Can a petroleum-derived solvent end up in a bottle of oil? For the past few months, the question has been doing the rounds in France. It deserves a clear answer, without drama. Everything depends on one thing: the way the oil was extracted.
Two ways to get the oil out
An edible oil is a fat locked inside a seed or a fruit. There are two main ways to get it out.
The mechanical route
The fruit is crushed, malaxed and centrifuged. Nothing is added. It is the oldest method and the easiest to understand: fruit goes in, oil comes out. It is also the least profitable, because some of the oil stays in the solid matter.
The chemical route
For oilseeds (rapeseed, sunflower, soya), industry most often uses a solvent. The most common one is called hexane, a petroleum derivative. It dissolves the fat, is then heated to evaporate it, and the oil is refined: neutralised, bleached, deodorised. The yield is much higher. The flavour, however, disappears. That is in fact the very principle of a so-called "neutral" oil.
Why it is being talked about today
In September 2025, an investigation by Greenpeace France reported traces of hexane in a majority of the products it had analysed: vegetable oils, but also everyday products. In January 2026, a fact-finding mission of the French National Assembly published its conclusions on the subject. Its first recommendation concerns consumer information: stating on the label whether a solvent has been used. At present, no such statement exists.
We will not name any brand, and we will not tell anyone what they should keep in their kitchen. Our role is more modest: explaining what the words actually cover.
"Extra virgin": what the term rules out
European regulations are precise on this point. A virgin olive oil is obtained solely by mechanical processes, under conditions that do not alter the oil. No chemical treatment is permitted. The extra virgin designation adds quality criteria: low free acidity and no taste defect, as judged by a professional panel.
In other words: an extra virgin olive oil cannot have come into contact with hexane. If it had, it would no longer be entitled to that name. This is not a marketing promise, it is a legal definition.
A useful distinction: olive pomace oil
Alongside virgin olive oils there is olive pomace oil. It is obtained from the solid residues of extraction, using solvents, and then refined. It is legal and its label says so. But it has nothing in common with a virgin olive oil: neither the same product nor the same taste. Reading the exact product name is enough to tell them apart.
At our estate: cold, the same day
Our olives are hand-picked in our four olive groves in Ilia, in the Peloponnese. They go to the mill on the day they are harvested. Extraction is carried out cold, by mechanical means only. Nothing is added, nothing is taken away.
And because a claim is worth more when it can be checked, we publish the analyses of every cuvée: acidity, polyphenols, oleocanthal, pesticide residue screening. For the 2026 vintage, this residue screening came back at zero. Everything can be viewed on our analyses page.
Three simple checks to see clearly
- Read the exact product name. "Extra virgin olive oil" is not "olive oil" (a blend that contains refined oil), nor "olive pomace oil".
- Look for the harvest date. A bottle that only shows a best-before date says little about its freshness.
- Look at what is published. A laboratory analysis, a precise origin, a named mill: these are facts, not adjectives.
We have devoted a whole article to this subject: The art of choosing an olive oil.
The taste tells the story of the process
One thing remains, and it is perhaps the most telling. A refined oil has almost no taste: that is exactly what is asked of it. An extra virgin olive oil, by contrast, has bitterness, a peppery kick at the back of the throat, a scent of fresh grass or artichoke. These sensations come from polyphenols, compounds that refining removes.
Taste is therefore not a connoisseur's detail. It is a clue to the way the oil was made. Often, tasting is all it takes to know. Our four cuvées are waiting for you among our bottles.
At Oikos Antalis, it is this taste that we strive to preserve, from the olive grove to the mill.
This information is general in nature and does not replace medical advice.