Does olive oil have trans fats?
Les from Colavita asks: On the Olive Oil Source website, there is a statement that Olive oil contains no trans fats. I am looking for literature that explains that claim News responds: On our site we use Apostolos Kiritsakis’s and Dimitrios Boskou’s olive chemistry textbooks for technical information. South African olive oil chemist Guido Costa has also weighed in and is quoted on our chemistry page. We occasionally speak with oil chemists directly to settle an argument and they are quoted in our Comments section of the newsletter. Kiritsakis’s book suggests there may be minute (<.01%) amounts of elaidic acid(C18:1), which is a trans fat, in olive oil but that "it has not been positively determined". I think it would be more than safe to say that olive oil has no trans fatty acid isomers.
