The 500ml bottle: the standard size for a working kitchen

The 500ml bottle is the size most often found on olive oil shelves anywhere in the world, and the reason is practical: it is large enough to last several weeks of cooking, and small enough to be finished before the oil inside loses its flavour.

How long one bottle lasts

Rough figures, not a promise — every kitchen uses it differently:

• Salads and finishing only: two to three months
• Salads plus sautéing a few times a week: six to eight weeks
• Daily cooking for two or three people: three to four weeks
• Heavy roasting and weekend cooking: two to three weeks

As a guide, an opened bottle of olive oil is at its best used within roughly two months. If a 500ml bottle lasts you longer than that, a 250ml would suit you better.

What is in the bottle

Organic extra virgin olive oil, single origin from Tunisia, cold pressed and bottled at source. Its free acidity was tested at 0.18% by ONH Tunis in report N° 2025B1064 dated 17 March 2026 — the international ceiling for extra virgin is 0.8%.

It also carries up to 600 mg/kg of total polyphenols, the natural compounds that give fresh olive oil its peppery, slightly bitter edge. Halal recognised by JAKIM.

What it is used for

Everything. The 500ml bottle is the working bottle — it lives by the stove and gets used daily.

• Sautéing onion, garlic and vegetables over medium heat
• Roasting vegetables, chicken or fish in the oven
• Salads, with lime or vinegar and salt
• Poured over soup, hummus or hot rice before serving
• Instead of butter on toast

Where to keep it

A working bottle still needs storing properly. Three things spoil olive oil — light, heat and air — and a Malaysian kitchen supplies all three readily.

• A cool, dark low cupboard, not an open shelf beside the hob
• Away from the window, even in dark glass
• Not on top of the fridge — the back of one vents heat upwards
• Capped after every pour
• No need to refrigerate it

A half-empty bottle standing on a bright counter near the stove gets all three at once, and the oil will lose its flavour far faster than it should.

One bottle or two

If you cook daily, two 500ml bottles usually make more sense than one — the second stays sealed until the first is finished, so no oil sits half-empty for weeks.