It is very likely that your first gesture when you open any PET bottle of olive oil (it can be extra virgin, virgin or olive pomace and even sunflower oil). is to pull that ring, as if it were a hand grenade, and vilely discard it.
However, in the food industry almost nothing happens by chance and olive oil bottle rings were not going to be less. It is not that this little ring that sometimes gets stuck on the finger is a technical whim, but it is not just a matter, as you may have seen sometimes, to preserve the quality of the oil.
It happens with the five-liter carafes, with the three-liter containers and also with smaller formats, both in PET and glass, for liter or half-liter bottles. Nothing is left to chance in these rings which, however, end up going to waste at the first opportunity.
Unfortunately, do without them the only thing that will mean is to worsen the quality of our oil as we use it (something especially avoidable in large formats). In fact, we already told you why you shouldn’t buy olive oil in large quantities (and what is the best way to store it).
Nevertheless, that of conservation is not the only dilemma to take advantage of this ring. Especially when we know who the worst enemies of olive oil are and how you should keep it at home and the damage that light, heat or oxygen can do.
For this reason, the olive oil packaging machines put this little ring that, once torn off, you can turn around and put on the cap to prevent air (and therefore oxygen) from entering and start to oxidize our oil.
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In the same way, in small bottles, this ring that you can reuse has a practical virtue that it will allow you not to stain the kitchen or take advantage of just a trickle of olive oil on your plates, without it spurting out. When you place it on the bottle, it allows not to mess more than necessary and serve the oil easily, quickly and cleanly without complications.
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