Olive presses and mills explanation


U.S. Olive Oil Companies International Growers Newsletter & Events Online Olive Oil Encyclopedia Starting an Olive Oil Business Olive Oil Sales
	Private Labeling Olive Oil by the case Bulk Oil by the gallon Olive Oil for Soap Making Wedding favors Fundraiser
Complete catalog Books Health & Recipes
	Ask the Dr. Recipes
		Curing olives Flavored Oils Tuscan Dishes Baking with Olive Oil Recipe Links
	Tours & Map Cosmetics Tasting Making Olive Oil
Equipment & Containers
	Mills and Presses
		Mills and presses home Il Molinetto Pieralisi First Press - home olive oil press
	Glass Bottles Bottle Spouts Plastic Containers Stainless Tanks Big Stainless Fustis Pickers, Shakers & Harvesters Saws & Pruners Filters & Bottlers
Industry Resources
	Growing Olives
		Olive Orchard Olive Varietals and botany Starting a business Propagating olive trees
	Olive Fly Making Olive Oil
		Olive Mills and Presses explained Tips to making perfect olive oil Regulations Mills & Presses for sale Olive Waste Disposal
	Suppliers to the Industry
		Olive Tree Sources Consultants Public Olive Oil Mills Bulk / Private label Bottlers/Bottles Farming Supplies Fresh olives Testing Laboratories
	Links & Associations
		California and U.S.Associations International Associations
	Olive People
Olive Facts
	History of the Olive Olive Taxonomy, classification Olive Varietals Olive Production Statistics How is olive oil made? Definitions Questions Olive Chemistry
Olive Art About Us
	Our Customers
Archives - Search Producer Area

Mill and Press Facts
How Olives are turned into oil

Steps to olive oil making once you've grown and picked the olives:

1. Cleaning the olives.
2. Grinding the olives to paste
3. Mixing to increase olive oil yield
4. Separating the oil and water from the fruit (pomace)
5. Separating the oil from the water
6. Processing the oil, further extraction
7. Storage and Bottling considerations
8. Tasting and rating your oil

Buying Mills and Presses

1. Cleaning the Olives.
	Stems, twigs and leaves are removed and the olives may or may not be cleaned with water to remove pesticides, dirt, etc. Rocks and Sand will quickly wear out a centrifugal decanter or oil separator, reducing life span from 25 to as little as 5 years.

2. Grinding the olives to paste


Stone Olive Mills
	Stone rollers or wheels roll in circles on a slab of granite to grind the olives into a paste
Advantages can be adapted to olive and pit size to optimize paste characteristics doesn't cut the skin, releasing less chlorophyll formation of larger size drops of oil, minimizing mixing times paste isn�t heated less phenols so less bitter oil Disadvantages bulky stone is difficult to clean green olives will prolong grinding time costly discontinuous process - time consuming high labor cost Lower level of phenols extracted - shorter life of oil but less bitter

Metal Toothed Grinder
	Olives are fed into the center of this grinder. An electric motor attached to a toothed grinder pulverizes the olives as they are flung away from the center.

Advantages continuous less costly precise regulation of olive paste fragment size high throughput may give the oil a longer shelf life* Disadvantages olive paste fragment size not easily modified may form emulsion which impedes oil - water separation organoleptic characteristics affected oil can have stronger, spicy taste (this may be an advantage with mild olives) One stone can break an expensive tooth on the grinder oil paste may heat up

Hammer mill

A hammer mill has swinging arms which through centrifugal action push the olives into the sides of a rotating chamber, similar to a home garbage disposer. The mill may have one to several hammers

Advantages

continuous
high throughput
Tolerates debris such as rocks and grit
know, perfected technology
Extracts more phenols so oil has longer shelf life*

Disadvantages

may form emulsion which impedes oil - water separation
organoleptic characteristics affected - oil can have bitter, stronger, spicy taste due to more phenols
wear and tear of metal parts
oil paste may heat up

Destoning the Olives First

Although first described hundreds of year ago, there has been recent interest in producing oil from destoned olives. Some studies show that destoning lowers olive oil yields by less than 1.5%. Gas chromatographic comparisons of oil made either way show that stones do not make any distinctive contribution to the flavor of the oil - they are primarily lignin and other woody compounds. Advantages seem to be more in acidity, peroxide level and phenol content which affects shelf life.

Advantages

higher phenol level
Oils subjected to less heating due to stone fracturing
Lower acidity
Lower Peroxide levels
Destoned pomace is easier to use as animal feed
The stones can be burned to create heat to dry a watery pomace for easier disposal

Disadvantages

may form emulsion which impedes oil - water separation
requires longer mixing times
requires additional machinery at additional expense
slightly lower oil yields

* Amirante, Dugo, Gomes, Olivae, Oct 2002

Next Page--->

1. Cleaning the Olives.

2. Grinding the olives to paste

Stone Olive Mills