Olive oil for restaurants and cafés: what to ask for

Buying olive oil for a commercial kitchen is a different exercise from buying for home. Price per bottle matters less; documentation, consistency and cost per serving matter more.

What your menu claims

If your menu says "extra virgin olive oil", the product must genuinely be extra virgin. The "pure" and "light" grades are refined oil and cannot be described that way.

This is not merely technical. It is a representation to your customers, and a laboratory report is how you evidence it if asked. The same applies to "organic" and to any origin claim.

Paperwork worth asking for

• A laboratory report for the current batch, with the laboratory's name, a report number and a date
• A halal certificate naming the issuing body — in Malaysia, recognised by JAKIM
• Food safety certification for the plant, such as FSSC 22000 or BRCGS
• Organic certification if you intend to state it on the menu
• Evidence of official importer status, if you are reselling a branded product

Cost per serving

Price per bottle is the wrong figure. Divide the container price by its volume in millilitres, then multiply by the millilitres used per plate.

A tablespoon is about 15ml; a teaspoon about 5ml. A dressed salad uses roughly a tablespoon; a finishing drizzle a teaspoon or less. Seen per plate, the price gap between grades is usually smaller than it looks on the shelf.

The same sum shows where extra virgin earns its place and where it does not. For deep frying in volume, the flavour is lost to the heat and the cost per serving climbs. For finishing and raw dishes, the cost is small and the flavour is what the customer notices.

Consistency

Switching oil mid-season means switching the taste of your dishes. Ask a supplier how often stock is replenished and whether the oil comes from a single source.

Oil blended across several countries can change flavour between batches without warning, because the blend itself changes. Single-origin oil from the same groves and varieties is far more consistent.

Storage in a commercial kitchen

• Keep stock in a cool store, not on a shelf near the stove
• Decant into small bottles for service, and reseal the tin
• Label decanted bottles with the date they were filled
• Rotate stock in the order it arrived
• Do not keep bottles near the fryer or salamander — sustained heat degrades oil faster than anything else

Olivko is imported into Malaysia by Easy Global Ventures Sdn. Bhd. For wholesale pricing and larger volumes, contact us directly.