What do the dates on the bottle of olive oil mean?

Olive oil packaging usually shows a ‘best by date’ but a ‘harvest date’ is a better indication of its age. Why Because a producer can keep oil in a tank for years before he bottles it (and the best by date is 2 years after that). The harvest date tells you when the fruit was crushed. So look for a harvest date if you can find one and make sure it’s fresh — harvested no more than a year ago is ideal.

For more quick answers to your olive oil questions, ask Ollie — a bot developed by the Olive Oil Times Education Lab that uses artificial intelligence to help people learn more about olive oil.