California Olive Oil News^©
A Publication of The Olive Oil Source  

Volume 7 Issue 9

September  2004

Paso Robles Olive Oil Festival

Paso Robles, Ca - Organizers should be congratulated on a hugely successful first year event which showcased this burgeoning olive oil production area.  The rectangular Paso Robles Main Park, framed by the old business district, was filled with art, food and olive oil booths.   Two stages offered music, cooking demonstrations and live auctions of olive oil related products.  All of the vendors we interviewed were overwhelmed with the attendance and interest in olive oil and olive growing. Hot dry weather tempered by afternoon wind gusts which tore at displays did not discourage attendees.

At the Olive Oil Source booth we met dozens of "casual" olive growers who had a "few thousand" trees in the ground but who were still thinking of a company name and where the olives will be pressed in a year or two.  Mission, Arbequina, and the Tuscan varieties were the most common varieties we heard being planted.  Brochures for Pieralisi centrifugal presses and Il Molinetto presses  were snapped up quickly and Several growers expressed interest in installing systems in the coming years.

San Luis Obispo County is in the middle of California half way between San Francisco and Los Angeles and is a major wine producing area.  Unlike Napa county further north which supports many small boutique vineyards, large wine companies have planted vines as far as the eye can see in this area.  Olive growers seem to have taken the same cue and are planting trees on a large scale. 

There were many olive growers from the San Joaquin valley who normally sell to the canneries attending the show.  Many were interested in converting to oil production. 

Wendell and Jennifer Davis of Big Trees Now had a booth selling every type of olive tree from dwarf varieties for bonsai to plants already loaded with olives. 

The California Olive Oil Council (COOC) booth offered tastes of COOC certified oils.  Executive Director Patty Darragh says she and booth assistants ran out of bread for dipping by noon and ended up scrounging the shelves of local supermarkets to resupply. 

Eleanor Krause

Eleanor Krause of Lockridge Olive Oil had a run on her garlic flavored oil which sold out early in the day.  Event organizer Gary Brown of We Olive Oil had olive oil tasters lined up in front of his booth.  Merritt Edmunds of Balzana was pouring tastes of his olive oil.  Napa Valley producer Round Pond was showcasing olive oil in a new bottle.  Vineyard Canyon Olive Ranch owner Dean Kahan reported doing a booming business with their Tuscan blend.  Olea Farms from down the road in Templeton had a booth with tasting of their Arbequina Extra Virgin oil.  Fusano Olive oil has resurrected the colorful fruit box labels of the 1920's for their label.  Joelle Olive Oil of Bangor offered their extra virgin oil in bottles, gift boxes and bulk plastic containers.  Chapel Hill of Shandon and McEvoy Olive Oil of Sonoma county also attended. 

Olive Oil Bottling Equipment

You have finally gotten a crop from your trees, the olives have been pressed and your oil is sitting in head packs or drums, you have picked out a beautiful bottle; now how do you get the oil in the bottle?   The answer might surprise you. 

Many producers think they must buy an expensive bottling line or bring their oil to a bottler but there are a variety of inexpensive alternatives.  The first decision is when to bottle.  Oil keeps better in drums than bottles so bottling small quantities, only as much as you need for ongoing sales, is the wise decision.  Better to let the oil settle in a conical tank or drum where it can be decanted than in your bottle.  Drums topped with inert gas or stainless steel tanks with floating lids keep out light and minimize oxidation.

You may run into a situation where you find you are selling more of your 250ml size bottle than your 500ml.  If you have already bottled the whole year's harvest it will be too late to shift bottle sizes. 

Some producers decide to change their label or closure or have a demand for special event or promotional label. Bottling as you go gives you greater packaging flexibility. 

Bottling 500 gallons of oil in one day would be best done on a mechanized line.  If you bottle once a week throughout the year it would only be 10 gallons at a time.  The simplest and cheapest way to bottle would be to fill a 50 liter fusti from a drum with a hand pump, then fill the bottles by hand using the fusti equipped with a quarter turn spigot.  You could fill 150 quarter liter bottles in 2 hours this way, just eyeballing the fill level.

Simple fusti with spout for filling olive oil bottles

For those who need to go to a mechanized bottler, there are several small ones on the market.  Be aware that machines designed for wine or other water based products may not work for oil, which can swell seals and gaskets. 

Gravity fillers use an overhead tank and a siphon to fill bottles to a specified height.  There are usually several spigots in a row as the bottles fill relatively slowly, stopping at a set fill level.  The operator goes down the row replacing filled bottles with empty ones.  When the fill spigot is raised, flow is cut off.  A gravity filler costs about $300.

Vacuum fillers suck air out of the bottle, pulling oil in, which speeds the filling process.  The operator of a small vacuum filler does one bottle at a time. Such fillers can be adjusted to different fill levels and bottle sizes.  The speed at which the bottle fills is adjustable. At its highest setting an operator could fill hundreds of bottles an hour.  Single bottle vacuum fillers designed for oil cost about $500.

Vacuum bottle filler

For those who need faster throughput, the next option is a pump filler.  These usually have several filling spouts and the oil can be simultaneously filtered.  Prices are around $1800 for a 4 spout filler.

 
Pump Filler - 4 spout

All of the above solutions assume hand corking and finishing.

The next step would be a complete filling line.  These can be put inline with a capper and labeler.  Automated filling lines have a variety of options but one of the most useful is filling by weight or exact volume.  Glass bottles are not all created equally and filling to a height on the neck does not put an equal amount of oil in each bottle.  To make sure each bottle has the minimum quantity stated on the label, most of the bottles must be overfilled by a small amount.  That adds up for large producers.  Automated lines can deliver a precise quantity of oil to each bottle.  The fill height will be slightly different for each bottle but this is usually hidden by the shrink wrap closure. Bottles with tall thin necks will show this discrepancy the most and may need to be filled to a certain height on the neck instead.

To deliver a set amount, some machines weight the empty bottle, then add a set weight of oil.  Bottlers can also be ordered which fill by volume. In some a piston draws up a calibrated amount of oil, then injects it into the bottle. A less precise method uses a pump which delivers a set amount of oil per second and a timer. Both weight and volume must be adjusted for temperature as a given amount of oil will fill a greater volume at a higher temperature.

Automated lines are usually custom designed to your specifications.  The size and type of bottle which can be filled are variables which need to be specified.  Some fillers can accommodate very small bottles and odd shapes.  Some blow air into the bottles first to clean them. 

Capping can be done with a separate machine or with options added to your bottler. Plastic caps, bar top corks or crimp-on screw cap (ROPP) options can be specified.  You can even order equipment to automate shrink wrapping for a complete finish. Prices for automated lines are very variable depending on these options.  An automated line with all the bells and whistles which will clean the bottle, fill, cap, and label goes for around $150,000.

New  Or Updated Pages

Outline for Starting an Olive Oil Business
Olive Oil Bottling

Advertising

Joleen Asks: I recently purchased an old farm in Las Vegas with many overgrown trees. How do I identify olive trees and it seems to my wife and I that our allergies are worse now. Could this be from the olive trees?

Dr. Deane replies: Allergy to olive pollen is common. Olive trees are wind pollinated so the pollen grains are small and can travel long distances. Your allergy to olive trees would only be active when they are blooming in the spring when they have many small flowers on the previous year's growth.

The trees have distinctive colored and shaped leaves. You can compare your trees to pictures on our site or in a horticulture book or get a knowledgeable nurseryman or neighbor to help. In the fall, olive trees should bear olives, so it would be easier to identify them at that time of year.

Worsening allergies on moving to a new location may warrant allergen testing by an allergist to determine if you could eliminate the offending substance from your environment.