Olive oil – liquid gold – quality characteristics

The quality of the oil is determined by many factors. Among other things, the variety of olives, the time of ripening and their condition at harvest play a role. Basically, the olives are harvested when their color changes from yellow-green into darker. The darker the fruit, the greater the oil yield. However, ripe or overripe olives don’t have the same high value of phytonutrients as green olives that are just ripening. Thus, although the field yield is lower, the oil is all the more valuable.

Free from foreign particles

Criteria for organic olive oil must be met, not only in maintenance, but also in harvesting. In today’s process of pruning with a chainsaw during harvesting, it is precisely prescribed which motor oils are allowed to avoid any residues. In the past, harvesting was done by hand and afterwards the trees were pruned. This meant extra time and effort and would be unprofitable with today’s labor costs for seasonal workers.

Fast processing

During the harvest season, the oil mills run day and night. Olive growers deliver about 3 tons of olives daily, with about 8 harvesters. Harvested olives must not wait longer than 3 days in the bags for pressing. Otherwise, fermentation begins and the acidity increases, which drastically deteriorates the quality of the oil.

Oil extraction

In many places, modern stainless steel machines are used for production. This avoids oxygen influx and makes it easy to maintain low temperatures.

In the oil mill, the olive bags are emptied into a large hopper. A conveyor belt carries the olives up to a suction station where small branches and leaves are extracted. The leaves are blown out into the open where they are collected; later they will make a good fertilizer. Afterwards, the olives are washed and drip-dried by shaking them on the conveyor belt before they reach the weighing machines.

Then a conveyor belt transports the olives to the crusher. Here, olives are crushed together with the pits by means of constantly rotating stainless steel vibrating wheels and collected in a mincer. The olive paste is stirred in the mincer for 20 minutes by means of a screw system.

Now the olive pulp is transported by hoses to the decanter, where the oil is separated from the liquid and the pulp in one operation. An underground conveyor belt transports the pulp to the yard, which is not disposed of, but is burned for energy production according to the recycling process. The separation of fruit water and oil takes place in the centrifuge. The pure olive oil now runs from the centrifuge through a discharge pipe into the filtering plant, where the olive oil passes through three filtering passes and is collected in a large stainless steel container, from where it is directly bottled.

Samples are then taken and sent to a laboratory for analysis.

Olive oil – quality characteristics

“Cold pressed” / “cold extracted”: May be used when virgin olive oils have been extracted at 27° C or less (according to EU regulations) in a traditional hydraulic press (first cold pressing) or in modern centrifugal systems (cold extraction).

“Extra virgin olive oil”: the term for “extra virgin” (Engl. ) or “extra vergine” (Ital.) stands for olive oil of the first quality class. It was obtained directly from olives and exclusively with mechanical processes.

“Virgin olive oil”: this oil has also been obtained directly from olives and exclusively with mechanical processes, but is of slightly lower quality.

“Olive oil”: this oil is a mixture of refined olive oil and virgin olive oil. It contains only refined olive oil and oil obtained directly from olives.

 “Olive Pomace Oil”: this oil contains only oil from the treatment of olive pomace as well as oil extracted directly from olives.

Notice:

The cold pressed olive oil used for ACHALA products is pressed at 20° degrees. It comes from the oil mill ΕΛΑΙΟΥΡΓΙΟ – ΑΓΡΟΤΙΚΕΣ ΣΥΝΕΤΑΙΡΙΣΜΟΣ ΑΓ. ΣΩΤΗΡΑΣ, ΠΑΝΙΠΕΡΙΟΥ, ΜΕΣΣΗΝΙΑΣ and is in possession of the ΠΟΠ Designation of Origin (προστατευόμενη ονομασία προέλευσης) This certification process certifies that the olives used come from a specific region within Greece. Furthermore, the ΠΟΠ olive oil must have less than 0.4% acidity.