So olive oil smokes at a low temperature, right?
Wrong (sort of).
Free fatty acids (FFA's) are chains of fat molecules that are not attached to anything else. Long story short - they are bad for you (and your oil). Higher FFA content is an indicator of poor quality olive oil. FFA's will also determine the smoke point of your olive oils.
Well that's cool, huh? Bad news: it's impossible to tell how much FFA content is in most olive oils. If an olive oil is labeled "extra virgin" (EVOO), it is required to have a FFA content of <0.8%. Sadly, most olive oils labeled as such do not meet the EVOO standard. Good news: Our Ultra premium (UP) olive oil is all certified to have <0.3% FFA, and we can tell you exactly how much is in each of our UP EVOO's! This means our olive oils will have a much higher smoke point than conventional olive oils.