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<pre>George, Guido, Haluk and others

What food for thought you have all offered.

In Australia we are just beginning to come to terms with the olive and it's
oil. In a thousand years we may be as advantaged as yourselves in terms of
experience but we will still be a thousand years behind in terms of culture
and appreciation of olive oil but we hope to improve!

Mind you, the new born child has still to learn from whatever background
they may spring from. Certainly hereditary traits may be of value but,
equally, they may be of disadvantage.

As a very old, new born child of the olive world, may I make these
observations based on my actual experience? I use a 2 phase Pieralisi
(graduating from a 2 phase Oliomio) but have 1st hand experience of/or used
a 3 phase Pieralisi, a Sinolea and various traditional mat presses (ss
mats). In 99, 00 & 01 we did some trials using various of the instruments
with the same batch of fruit.

In the 1st trial (3 phase Pieralisi Vs Oliomio 100) the results were, by my
nose and palate, far superior with the Oliomio (in 1999). My opinion was
that the superior quality was due to lower paste temperatures (35 vs 25), a
longer malaxing period, a slower throughput of paste through the decanter
and no added water throughout the process. Here are 4 basic variables
therefore that have to be contended with. Add to these the different
machinery (malaxing action, decanter properties, water content etc) and
those variables compound. A mere week later (same grove, same fruit, stable
temperatures) we ran the a batch through a traditional press. Ambient temp
much the same, olives were stone ground and pasted onto ss mats.

We could discern no difference btwn the Oliomio and trad press oils.

In 2000 we trialled (on the same fruit at the same time under similar
climatic conditions) fruit on Oliomio, Sinolea & Trad Press (synthetic
mats). Extraction rate was superior with the ubiquitious Oliomio and the
taste sensations greater than Sinolea but comparable to the Trad Press of
the preceding year. In
part this may be due to varietal (Verdale in this instance) as much as other
variables. The Sinolea, with this fruit, was not flash! In taste nor
volume.

This year (2001) a public trial was done at Olive Week in Melbourne.
The Trad Press was not used as the owners did not like the fruit being used.
The Sinolea did not perform well with the
fruit (Verdale again) whilst the Oliomio produced some really good oil.
With our own 2 stage Pieralisi we did significant batches of 3 varietals
(Frantoio,
Verdale & Manzanillo) and produced what we thought were excellent oils as
did others (3 Gold, 5 Silver, 4 Bronze). All the oils produced were extra
virgin with a max FFA of 0.4 and a min FFA of 0.18.

Regards
Peter Caird
www.victorianolivegroves.com
0418 392 157


Your statements: "not all olive oil producers are involved in
producing olio sansa (pomace oil)" and "I'm sure that there are many
producers out there, who, like ourselves, are not involved in
producing olive pomace oil, and who are operating their systems the
way they where designed to operate." In a funny way this is true.
Even if you (or any other for this matter) wanted to produce pomace
oil with a two-phase decanter you would not be able to do it. An
olive oil extraction plant cannot produce pomace oil. But it can
produce positive cash flow by making extracted pomace cash earning by-
product.

For the production of pomace oil an industrial size refinery is
needed. We have two such refineries in the prefecture of Chania and
there are less than ten of them on the whole island. They need to
collect all the pomace produced by the olive processing factories of
the island in order to be efficient. I do not know the total
production of olive oil of South Africa (you can perhaps inform us)
but our island, Crete, produces approximately 5% of the world
production (120.000 to 145.000 tons) of which 85% is extra virgin.
This gives anyone a good indication that our thousand year old
tradition has made olive oil cultivation and production not only our
business, but part of our culture, our religion and part of our
everyday life. If there is a new technology in olive oil extraction I
assure you that this is one of the first places where this technology
will be brought in and demonstrated by its manufacturers. Our
experience in producing olive oil is not individual or "specific" as
you call it but rather collective. Our experience has been earned by
interacting in practice. We learn every day from each other. We are
over 250 olive oil factories in our prefecture alone and over 1.000
on the island. The age of technology used is six years old on
average. EU and Greek government funded renewal programs made this
possible.

Pomace oil, and its blends with extra virgin olive oil, is a legal
product and together with refined olive oil comprises 70% of world
olive oil consumption. Spain, Italy and Greece are the major
producers and exporters of the above products. These products, as
long as they are correctly labeled, are very important for many
reasons: they give an affordable alternative to olive oil and an
effective competitor to other seed oils; they are the olive oil
products that open new markets and help people new to olive oil
acquire a taste for it, be educated about olive oil, and eventually
graduate to virgin and extra virgin olive oils.

When the pomace oil has been extracted, the remaining pomace is the
ground dry olive pit, which is recycled by using it to fire our
furnaces. Creating cash products from the solid discards of the olive
factory, promoting recycling, and protecting the environment from
further olive pollutants are the main points which create a strong
case for the three phase centrifugal decanter. In the case of two-
phase extraction, where you take in the pomace together with the
vegetable water in one phase, someone has to pay for the energy
needed to dry the pomace. That's why most of the new two-phase
decanters are operating as three-phase decanters.

Perhaps you can tell us exactly how South Africans deal with this
kind of pomace, so that the sogginess of the pomace is not "an issue"
for you.

- About Benzo-alpha-pyrene.

I am not qualified to debate on Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons. I
will state only that, in all fairness one has to examine the presence
of these substances in all the foods we consume which need some kind
of drying or roasting -sometimes aggressive as you the chemist put it-
like roasted peanuts, coffee, or charcoal-grilled steaks, hamburgers
or pizza and bread cooked in wood fired ovens. Do you ever stop and
wonder if the smoked salmon you enjoy might contain Polycyclic
Aromatic Hydrocarbons above "accepted" levels? What kind of interests
might be behind targeting olive pomace olive oil?

- About the olive presses.

You are insinuating that the scientific references, which I offered
in defense of my views, are outdated while you base your argument
on "your specific experience". I would think that your "specific
experience " might be outdated. If you consult with the manufacturers
which you mentioned (Pieralisi, Rapanelli .) you will certainly be
surprised to see how much the traditional press which you refer to
has changed. Everything is in INOX , pressing diaphragms are made out
of 100% nylon thread (easier to clean), automatic spreaders and
loaders are now used. Of course they can never reach the production
capacities and the production cost effectiveness of the decanters.
This system (stone mill and press) has been in existence for
millennia, more or less unchanged in working principles. It still
produces such a high quality olive oil that you chaps with the
modern technology have to "borrow" descriptive terms such "cold
pressed" or "first cold pressed" evoking the traditional extraction
method in order to capitalize on its quality attributes. Personally,
I am preparing to upgrade from the 20-year-old stone mill and press
system which I currently use to one of those bright new traditional
installations with modern automation and higher output for a
substantial investment, in order to meet my clients demands.

There is no such thing as "centrifugal press". Centrifugal force is
used to separate faster immiscible liquids with different densities
by accelerating the gravitational force by angular rotation.

Those who believe that the consumer need not be informed or will not
be capable of comprehending production processes in order to develop
individual preference for olive oil, grossly underestimate the modern
consumer who is called upon to pay a hefty price for a bottle of
olive oil. One has to consider the speed and efficiency with which
information is made available today in order to understand how
quickly today's olive oil consumer is developing educated
preferences, which parallel wine consumption. If any one really
believes that there is nothing better than their two-phase extraction
system they should start informing consumers by declaring it on their
product description.

As far as reputable olive oil tasters and experts are concerned, what
they prefer, value, and praise, clearly will be the top quality olive
oils that have been produced with a concern for preserving the best
organoleptic properties regardless of extraction method.

Although it is acknowledged here that quality of olive oil has
improved in our times by leaps and bounds with all the extraction
systems in use, one has to consider and appraise all operational
aspects of each olive oil extraction system. Energy consumption
issues and environmental issues have to balance with production
efficiency and quality.
By arguing in favor of the traditional extraction method I am not
proposing to go back in time. Rather, I believe that production
principles which have been proven over time, when they are adapted to
current demands and operated from a scientific base, are still the
best choice.

Thank you for the opportunity to state my views. I hope as you do
that more members of this list participate in these issues. It is a
topic that won't go away by ignoring it.

George Dimitriadis.
http://www.biolea.gr



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