The Extra-Virgin Olive Oil Handbook

Claudio Peri, Claudio Peri

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781118460436
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Food Science
• Index: Technology & Engineering

According to European legislation, extra virgin is the top grade of olive oils. It has a superior level of health properties and flavour compared to virgin and refined olive oils. Mediterranean countries still produce more than 85% of olive oil globally, but the constant increase of demand for extra virgin olive oil has led to new cultivation and production in other areas of the world, including California, Australia, China, South Africa and South America. At the same time, olive oil's sensory properties and health benefits are increasingly attracting the attention and interest of nutritionists, food processors, manufacturers and food services. Progress and innovation in olive cultivation, harvesting and milling technologies as well as in oil handling, storage and selling conditions make it possible to achieve even higher quality levels than those stipulated for extra virgin oils. As a consequence, a new segment – excellent extra virgin olive oils – is increasingly attracting the attention of the market and earning consumers' preference.

The Extra-Virgin Olive Oil Handbook provides a complete account of olive oil's composition, health properties, quality, and the legal standards surrounding its production. The book is divided into convenient sections focusing on extra virgin olive oil as a product, the process by which it is made, and the process control system through which its quality is assured. An appendix presents a series of tables and graphs with useful data, including conversion factors, and the chemical and physical characteristics of olive oil. This book is aimed at people involved in the industrial production as well as in the marketing and use of extra virgin olive oil who are looking for practical information, which avoids overly academic language, but which is still scientifically and technically sound. The main purpose of the handbook is to guide operators involved in the extra virgin olive oil chain in making the most appropriate decisions about product quality and operating conditions in the production and distribution processes. To these groups, the most important questions are practical ones of why, how, how often, how much will it cost, and so on. The Extra-Virgin Olive Oil Handbook will provide the right answers to these key practical considerations, in a simple, clear yet precise and up-to-date way.

Part I

The product

Chapter 1

The extra-virgin olive oil chain

Claudio Peri

University of Milan, Milan, Italy

Abstract

This chapter presents the classification and commercial denomination of six olive oil categories recognized in international law (two virgin and four refined). Extra-virgin olive oil is the highest quality olive oil. The extra-virgin olive oil chain, is presented as a sequence of five processes: (i) olive tree cultivation, (ii) olive harvesting and processing, (iii) oil storage, bottling and distribution, (iv) selling bottled oil and (v) oil use in culinary preparations. Processes (ii) and (iii), the subject matter of this handbook, are further presented as a sequence of unit operations. The main steps and conditions determining oil quality and yield are outlined.

1.1 The legal classification and denomination of olive oils

When talking or reading about olive oil, the first point to be clarified is the category of olive oil that is being discussed. Ignoring the category that the oil belongs to can be a source of confusion and misunderstanding and can lead to mistakes in buying, tasting or using it. Figure 1.1 is a flow-chart of the classification and denomination of the various categories of virgin and refined olive oils as globally agreed (see Council Regulation (EC) No. 1234/2007 of 22 October 2007, (Single CMO Regulation), consolidated version 2013-01-26, Annex XVI).

Figure 1.1 The flow-chart of virgin and refined olive oils.

The six categories highlighted by the grey background are suitable for human consumption.

The flow-chart starts with the olive milling process, whose products are the ‘virgin’ olive oils. Two of them, namely extra-virgin and virgin, are allowed for consumption. The third category, lampante, becomes edible only after a physical-chemical refining process and it is called ‘refined olive oil’.

On the other hand, the pomace, which is the solid residue from the milling process, still contains a small amount of olive oil that is impossible to extract by mechanical means. It can be extracted with solvents; the raw oil from this extraction is refined with a process very similar to that applied to lampante oil. The refined oil derived from pomace is called ‘refined olive-pomace oil’.

Both the ‘refined olive oil’ and the ‘refined olive-pomace oil’ can be mixed with extra-virgin or virgin olive oil in various undefined proportions in order to improve their flavour. These are called, respectively, ‘olive oil composed of refined and virgin olive oil’ and ‘olive-pomace oil’.

Chapter 17 gives a short presentation of the refining process. It is important that olive oil producers, retailers and consumers know the difference in technological and compositional terms between a virgin oil and a refined oil.

Regarding quality, extra-virgin olive oil is higher in quality than virgin olive oil and refined olive oil is higher in quality than refined olive-pomace oil. Refined olive oil is very mild and almost neutral in taste: it is very good for cooking, frying and for preserving canned vegetables or meat or fish. Extra-virgin olive oil is flavourful and tasty. A picture of the culinary uses of olive oil and especially excellent extra-virgin olive oils is given in Chapter 24.

1.2 The subject of this handbook

Focusing on extra-virgin olive oil opens a wide panorama because the oil varies depending on cultivar, climate and soil, and the conditions of the production-extraction-storage-and-distribution process. Extra-virgin olive oils can be of common or good or excellent quality. The purpose of this handbook is to discuss the technological and management conditions that allow an operator of the extra-virgin olive oil chain to improve the quality of the product, which is finally served at the consumer's table.

1.3 The extra-virgin olive oil chain

The extra-virgin olive oil chain can be divided into a series of five processes: (i) olive tree cultivation, (ii) olive harvesting and milling, (iii) oil storage, bottling and distribution, (iv) oil selling and (v) oil use in culinary preparations (Table 1.1).

Table 1.1 The processes of the extra-virgin olive oil chain.

These five processes have different structural and operational requirements, different marketing policies and different economies of scale. They are therefore usually managed and owned by different companies.

Processes (ii) and (iii) represent the core content of this handbook. There is some discussion about process (i) in Chapters 5 (olive tree cultivars) and 7 (olive harvesting), whereas Chapter 24 gives some general indications about the use of extra-virgin olive oil in culinary preparations.

1.3.1 Compact versus complex chain organization

The most compact organization of an extra-virgin olive oil chain entails a direct connection between only two parts (or modules): the first is represented by the producer and the second by the final consumer. In this case, which is very common in olive oil producing regions, a producer who is responsible for the chain from the field to the package, sells his oil directly to the final consumer, either a family or a restaurant. This organization is typical of traditional markets in a narrow area close to production, but sometimes it is also implemented in a global market and across continents. It is common to find commercial agreements between a restaurant in Los Angeles or Tokyo and a producer in Andalusia or Tuscany.

On the other hand, very complex chain organizations are implemented in large-scale and global businesses with multiple inputs and outputs connecting the five processes listed in Table 1.1.

Traceability of product origin and identity is easy in the case of the compact chain, whereas it may be very difficult or impossible in complex chain organizations.

1.3.2 The extra-virgin olive oil processes

As chains can be considered sequences of processes, processes can similarly be considered as sequences of unit operations. Processes are interconnected in series in a chain, so unit operations are interconnected in series in a process with the output of a unit operation being the input of the following one (Peri et al. 2004). Table 1.2 presents the unit operations of processes (ii) and (iii).

Table 1.2 The unit operations of extra-virgin olive oil processes.

Preliminary activities	Unit operation	Ancillary activities
Monitoring of olive maturity. Supply and maintenance of harvesting nets, crates and equipment	Harvesting
	Storage and transportation of olives
Mill plant maintenance, cleaning, and start trial	Olive reception at the mill plant
Standards agreed upon between the olive grower and the milling company	Visual inspection, control of origin and olive integrity	Decisions in case of nonconformity to standards
	Milling batches, identification and weighing	Record of milling batches
Deleafing at the olive grove site. Supply of potable water	Olive cleaning and washing	Disposal of solid residues and dirty water
	Olive milling or pitting	In case of pitting: discharge and use of olive stones
	Olive-paste malaxation	Monitoring and control of the time-temperature relationship
	Solid-liquid and liquid-liquid separation	Pomace to treatment and use. Wastewater to disposal
Supply of filter aids or filter pads	Oil filtration	Disposal of exhausted filtering material
Agreed upon standards of oil quality and yield	Oil weighing, chemical and sensory evaluation	Decisions in case of nonconformity
Maintenance of storage facilities	Storage batches formation and identification	Standard documentation of storage batches
	Oil storage	Waste disposal
Customers' orders and requirements	Oil blending, packaging batches formation	Chemical and sensory evaluation of packaging batches. Record of packaging batches
Maintenance and supply of packaging material	Packaging	Waste disposal
	Shipment of consignment to customers

1.4 Yield and quality

The primary objective of an extra-virgin olive oil company is to maximize oil yield and quality. Obtaining the largest quantity of oil with a high level of quality is the ultimate measure of process effectiveness and efficiency.

Contrary to the situation with other agricu...