A customer named Anisa Marie in Michigan recently wrote this email to Seagate concerned about her order from our company that had arrived to her home during very cold winter–
Comments: Hi, I just received my order and I live in Michigan where its extremely cold. My olive oil I ordered from you is solid. If it is frozen, will it be okay? Are my olive cleaners and other supplements okay also? Does the olive oil lose its benefits? I tried to call, but your office was closed. Thank you, Ann
This is a question that we very frequently receive during the coldest winter months in the northern parts of our country. Below is Seagate’s response to Ann’s question-
Dear Anisa Marie,
Olive Oil is composed of fatty acids, the most predominant being oleic acid, a mono-unsaturated fatty acid, which gives extra virgin olive oil most of its antioxidant and antimicrobial properties. Extra Virgin Olive Oil (like Seagate’s) also will contain small amounts of waxes from the surface of the olive, which had protected the olive from insect attack and dehydration while the olives were growing on trees. Refined olive oils, in contrast, usually have had all their wax removed by chemical treatment and unfortunately some residual chemicals added into the oil. As the temperature of the air reaches the mid-40’s F, the waxes in the extra virgin olive oil will begin to solidify, and cause the olive oil to appear cloudy. Once air the temperature drops below 40F, the oil will firm up enough that it cannot be poured from the bottle. With further drops in temperature, below 35F and heading towards 0 F, the oil will harden into a solid block such that a knife would not be able to penetrate it without considerable pressure.
There is some variation in the temperature that olive oil will become cloudy, solidify and completely harden due to the exact chemical makeup of the oil which can vary slightly from year to year depending upon the rainfall and the month of harvest. However, there is no loss in quality should your olive oil arrive in a solid state because solidifying does not affect its chemical structure.
It should also be mentioned that it is just a myth that extra virgin olive oil hardens at lower temperatures, while the imposter “extra virgin” oils that have been chemically processed or contain a mixture of other vegetable oils will not solidify at these lower temperature. In fact, the opposite occurs — the presence of more saturated fat in the olive oil (from mixing with other vegetable oils) will make the olive oil solidify at higher temperatures. Candy bars for example are full of saturated fat and therefore stay hard at room temperature.
In conclusion, don’t worry if your Seagate Extra Virgin Olive Oil arrives cloudy or solidified during the winter. This is normal. Just slowly bring the temperature of the bottle back to 50F or above and the olive oil will return to its liquid state and all cloudiness will disappear. In addition, the other Seagate products that arrived at your house, the Olive Leaf Surface Cleaner and the supplements, are also unaffected by low temperatures.
The photo above was taken shooting directly into the reef coral, a practice I generally try to avoid because the fish tend to become lost in the busy background. However, this particular piece of coral with hundreds of small yellow and orange fish darting about seemed like an interesting shot.