10 September 2024

Olive oil in a squeeze bottle


I spotted an unusual (for me) food product in a Bloomberg article: olive oil in a squeeze bottle.  All my life I've poured olive oil out of uncapped bottles, and the oil -  perhaps because of its surface tension? - invariably drips down the side of the glass bottle, which then has to be wiped clean.
Graza had introduced its two olive oils—Sizzle, for cooking with heat, and Drizzle, for dipping... a little more than a year after it hit the market, Graza was already in Whole Foods and preparing to expand its distribution to both Walmart and Target.

The squeeze bottles are the kind of move that seems almost gallingly simple in retrospect. Sometimes packaging is just as much the product as what’s contained inside it... inventing a new approach to package a familiar commodity has historically gone a long way toward convincing consumers that your product is the best. Before Kleenex’s pop-up tissue box, bundles of kerchiefs were often sold without storage boxes, and before Colgate’s toothpaste tubes, you had to scoop the stuff out of a jar with a little spoon...

5 comments:

  1. It's a very attractively convenient package, unless of course a person is trying to keep plastic out of the waste stream, in which case, it's a pretty terrible trade-off of convenience over ecological stewardship.

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  2. We use a glass bottle with a liquor spout. It drizzles or drops depending what way you pour it.

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  3. The olive oil I buy in the UK has a little plastic insert in the neck of the bottle to prevent drips. This is from a manufacturer's website and shows the opposite side, but when you open the cap there's a little plastic spout.

    https://www.globalbottlecap.com/new-design-available-long-spout-insert-olive-oil-aluminum-plastic-bottle-cap-product/

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  4. Like "Kent" said, more plastic. Plus, does the olive oil dissolve the plastic? If it does, then even more plastic. In your food stream.

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  5. There are several problems with olive oil being stored in plastic bottles. Plastic bottles sometimes react with olive oil and can affect the taste. Plastic is also much more permeable to oxygen and other gases, so the olive oil can oxidize much more easily. If you're buying cheap olive oil that will be processed, shipped and used quickly its ok. But if you dont use a lot of olive oil and can keep it in the container for more than 30 days or so before finishing the container -- then keep it in glass, or sealed tin or stainless steel bottle. Plastic bottles can also leach chemicals into the olive oil. If you buy high quality olive oil and want it to taste as good as you bought it for months after you buy it -- a dark glass bottle is best for storage.
    https://www.tastingtable.com/1445581/why-never-store-olive-oil-plastic-bottles-expert/

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