Mamavation | Healthy Living | Lifestyle | Detoxify Home | Product Recommendations

Mamavation » Blog » Food | Mamavation » Kasandrinos — Verified Phthalate-Free Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Kasandrinos Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil

//  by 

Are you looking for the safest organic extra virgin olive oil available right now? Mamavation has done extensive testing of olive oils over the past few years, and we have FINALLY found the first phthalate-free olive oil — Kasandrinos. You’ve trusted Mamavation to bring you topics like safest cooking oils tested for phthalates, safest children’s multivitamins tested for pesticides, heavy metals, phthalates, & PFAS “forever chemicals“, and safest teas tested for PFAS “forever chemicals,” now join us for a celebration of Kasandrinos USDA Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil being the first verified phthalate-free olive oil and the story behind how it was all possible.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. Mamavation independently tested Kasandrinos for phthalates, and we will pay ourselves back with the affiliate revenue we get from this post. You can also give a tax-deductible donation to our consumer studies here through Environmental Health Sciences. Thank you!  Copyright © 2026 Mamavation — All Rights Reserved

Kasandrinos Phthalate-Free Olive Oil Groves in Greece

Kasandrinos Becomes Mamavation’s First Verified Phthalate-Free Olive Oil

After extensively testing olive oils and other cooking oils over the past couple of years, Mamavation has FINALLY found the first phthalate-free olive oil: Kasandrinos USDA Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil. We tested Kasandrinos Extra Virgin Olive Oil for 19 phthalates at the lowest standardized detection level and then retested them again at another laboratory. In other words, we confirmed this at two separate independent labs. The results were non-detect and very good news!

Kasandrinos also hosts their extensive testing online for everyone to see. In addition to phthalate testing, they offer Bisphenol A, glyphosate, heavy metal, acidity, & chemical composition testing on their site.

Kasandrinos USDA Organic Olive Oil Celebratory Sale for a Limited Time

To celebrate these verified results, Kasandrinos is offering 25% off its olive oils and other products for a limited time and 35% off subscriptions through June 15th.

Now take a few minutes to read about the story behind Kasandrinos and the changes they made to become our only verified phthalate-free olive oil. We also provide questions you can ask other olive oil brands to determine whether they are worth your purchase.

Kasandrinos -- Verified Phthalate-Free Olive Oil fruit picking under the tree

Kasandrinos Cared Enough to Work with Mamavation and Changed Their Processing

This all started with our olive oil investigation, in which we originally found that 100% of the olive oils we tested contained traces of phthalates, with total phthalate levels ranging from 194 ppb to 6,092 ppb. Most olive oils had well over 1000 ppb total phthalates. After our second round of testing, Kasandrinos Olive Oil had the lowest phthalate levels, at only 194 ppb.

So we contacted Kasandrinos to inquire about how they could be so incredibly low in phthalate exposure. We also wanted to understand why they were so different than the other brands, so we could report on this publicly, in hopes that other competitors would use that information to improve their own supply chains. But we also wanted to encourage them to go even further.

We interviewed Tony Kasandrinos, the Founder & CEO of Kasandrinos. In our interview, it was immediately apparent that Tony knew the olive oil industry inside and out and could provide us with valuable information on common manufacturing and farming practices.

Kasandrinos Already Utilizes Sustainable Practices & What They Changed to Become Non-detect

There is a reason why so many olive oils are full of phthalates. The use of plastic and other polymers is commonplace in the olive oil industry during harvesting, transporting, processing, storage, and bottling. But this is something Kasandrinos has been wary of since the very beginning, as a small family business and olive oil farm operating in Greece.

One of the main differences that set Kasandrinos apart in our initial testing was their lack of plastic during the harvesting, processing, storage, & bottling stages. They avoided plastic tubing during olive oil production and avoided robotic harvesting, which also involves plastic. “Our olives are hand-picked rather than harvested by machines, many of which use plastic parts to remove olives from the branches.” This concerns us about robotic farm harvesting and manufacturing in general. Apparently, those robotic plastics are full of phthalates, and contamination is happening.  “All of our tubing during the olive oil production is stainless steel, instead of relying on plastic tubing.” This is a similar change that the dairy industry is starting to implement to lower phthalates in dairy milk. In addition, they also avoid transporting the olives in plastic bins and use old-fashioned burlap sacks instead. And finally, for storage, they immediately bottle the olive oil in dark glass bottles rather than in plastic vats. In other words, they cut out storage and go right to bottling.

Now, what did Kasandrinos do to lower their total phthalate results from 194 ppb to non-detect? That required some additional investigation and implementing changes on their part. “After reviewing the results, we took a close look at every step of our production process to identify any point where our olives or olive oil could potentially come into contact with plastic. We did identify one area for improvement: a plastic conveyor belt used before the stage where olives are separated from branches and leaves. We have since changed that step so the olives no longer come into contact with that belt.” Now, the olives are fed into the machine manually rather than placed on that plastic conveyor belt.

After this change was made, Kasandrinos tested their olive oils for phthalates and received a non-detect. They contacted us with the good news, and then Mamavation independently confirmed those results at two different EPA-certified labs. Hooray!

Kasandrinos Family in front of USDA organic olive oil groves

What Can The Olive Oil Industry Do To Lower Phthalates

For other olive oil brands that have phthalates at much higher levels, we can only assume it’s plastic contamination along the supply chain, from harvesting to bottling. When you are trying to figure out which olive oil brands to feed your family, and Mamavation have not tested them, here are some details you can ask to help you think through this process based on Kasandrinos’ practices.

  1. Instead of robotic harvesting, hand-pick the olives
  2. Instead of transporting the olives in plastic crates, use burlap sacks
  3. Instead of relying on plastic conveyor belts, manually place them into the separator to destem the branches
  4. Instead of using plastic tubes when the olive oil is produced, switch to stainless steel tubes
  5. Instead of storing the olive oil in plastic containers, bottle the olive oil immediately
  6. Instead of bottling the olive oil in plastic bottles, use dark glass bottles

Kasandrinos Olives poured into a basket

Other Mamavation Investigations

Are you looking for additional similar investigations testing the food supply and other consumer products? Mamavation has got you covered. Here are some of our additional consumer studies you may be interested in:

Beauty & Personal Care Products

Food & Beverages

Supplements

Menstrual Products

Clothing

Food Packaging & Kitchen Cleanup

Small Kitchen Appliances

Serving & Plating

Cleaning Products

Home Goods

Recent Product Investigations