How is Olive Oil Obtained?

How is olive oil obtained?

The olives delivered to the factory are weighed and discharged into the bunker. They are transported to the washing system with a conveyor belt. The first process starts by removing the bark, branch, leaf particles and crumbs and ensuring that only the fruits are taken. Because, if the shredding-grinding is done without removing the branch and leaf crumbs, the taste of the oil becomes bitter and its flavor decreases.

Washing Process

The second step in processing is the washing process. Olives, whose branches and leaves are cleaned, are washed to remove dust, sand, stone, dirt and medicine residues. The washed and drained olives are sent to the crusher.

"Kneading" or "malaxation" enables small oil droplets to merge with each other to turn into larger droplets and leak.

In this process, which takes 20-40 minutes and must be applied absolutely, the olive paste is heated up to 25-30 ºC (average 27 ºC) during mixing. This is called "cold pressed". However, the dough can also be heated up to 60 C to get more fat. This is called "hot pressing".

Long-term and high temperature kneading increases the oil yield, that is, the oil to be obtained. In addition, it allows the micro components that increase the flavor of the oil to dissolve into the oil. However, it also has a negative side as it causes oxidation that reduces oil life.

Separating Water and Oil

The oil remaining in the olive paste after kneading should be removed. Olive pulp taken from the kneader with the help of a pump is subjected to rinsing or pressing.

While this process is traditionally done with press mechanisms, today it is done with decanter machines.

Decanters are systems that separate pomace and oil + black water. While the dough moves in the horizontal cylinder, the heavy parts (pomace) go out, black water and oil are sent to the centrifuge system from the pipe in the middle. Blackwater, oil and pomace can be taken out in one step simultaneously, as well as two and three-phase systems.

Centrifugation

The separation of olive oil from black water is based on the accumulation of heavier water at the bottom and the light oil at the top, just as in the separation of milk from cream. Conical discs act as purifiers. A small amount of oil is taken from a large amount of water. Small particles in the oil are also removed by the last filtering process.

Oil Processing and Filtration

Oil is filtered through cotton filters and pumped into chrome tanks for packaging.