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The quality of an olive oil depends of many factors. The most importants are : the cultivar, the weather, the agronomic technique, the health of the trees, the time and system of
harvest, the duration and the modalities of the conservation of the olives, the transformation technology, the modalities of conservation of the oil.
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The
cultivar…In the case if some new implantations must be built, we need to equilibrate the choices of the environment , of the variety and of the trees. The choice of the cultivar has to be done in relation at their sensibility to the biotic and abiotic adversities presents in the relative milieu. In relation at the danger of attacks of the olive insects, for example, we must prefer cultivars with small fruits because these are less attractive for those parasites and also the larva inside can be easily killed by the high or low temperatures. Again about this parasite, the variety of the olive tree with a soon maturation can allow to escape from the late attacks. The cultivar is really important for the quality of the product, because it influences the acid composition (and in particular the concentration of the oleic acid and the report saturated/unsaturated), the contents of antioxidants (tocopherols and phenols), the colour (chlorophyll and carotenoids) and the organoleptic characteristics.
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The harvest time of the olives severely influences the quality of the oil. In fact, doing the olive-harvesting at the right degree of maturation, we get fruity, harmonic and equilibrate oils in the different sensations. Harvesting at the initial maturation (end October, beginning November), we will get an oil with fruity organoleptic characteristics, more bitter and spicy. In synthesis, for each cultivar, there are different maturation degrees (colour of the olive, resistance on the tree, consistence of the fruit, entity of the skin) to define the best harvesting time in function of the wanted result.
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Systems of the olive-harvest
The harvesting must be done manually at the tree, with the help of particular instruments (combs) pneumatic or electric or with vibrators. The system of harvesting should not damage the olives: the rupture of the epidermis, in fact, not only provokes the loss of greasy substances, but, above all, it exposes the fruits at the action of the oxygen and of the microbes , with the following loss of the chemical and organoleptic characteristics of the oil. The organoleptic characteristics decline during the conservation more quickly as more the fruits are damaged and easily the defects get out. |
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Technology of extraction.
From the washing and defoliating machine, the olives go dosed to the crushing machine, with the continue formation of the paste which goes to the kneading; so, opportunely addicted of water, the paste is sent to the horizontal centrifuge, the decanter, which use the theory of the centrifugation, dividing the paste in its three components, husk, vegetative water and oil must. The oil and the vegetative water are sent to the vertical centrifuge
in order to extract the oil.
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Conservation of the oil.
An oil must be preferably used in 12/15 months, because after this period it losses its principal organoleptic qualities (colour, flavour, savour, etc...) anyway, above all if the oil derives from cultivars characterised by a high concentration of polyphenols, if the harvesting has been done in the optimal period and if the conservation was adequate, the oil can maintain high qualitative characteristics for at least one year and a half (18 months).
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Di Fatigoni
Rita - Viole di Assisi (Pg)- Italy- Tel: 075 8064503 |
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