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<pre>Adrian,
what you say about the legal definition of extra vergine olive oil is
correct. Unfortunately there is no legal definition of which are the
'conditions, +ACoAKgAq- particularly thermal +ACoAKgAq-, that do not lead to
alterations
in the oil .....'. Which are the temperatures that give the producer the
right to call the oil 'cold pressed'? The outside temperature in
november/december (sometimes down to freezing point)? Then forget the
extraction of olive oil because it's solid. The inside temperature of the
mill? 10 - 15 degrees centigrade, depending on the outside temperature and
the size of the non heated building? Still to cold, you have to warm up the
olive paste (by the way, milling the olives heats it too, but nobody
measures this temperature). Can you heat the paste up to 20, 25, 30, 35, 40
or more degrees? There really is no definition, only good sense and some
scientific approach, but the deterioration of the oil is gradual, and there
is
no 'deadline temperature' that alterates the quality and under which you are
safe.
I saw mills that heated it up to 43 degrees and the quality was bad. In our
mill they use about 30 degrees for about 20 - 25 minutes and the quality is
very good. 30 degrees is the
temperature of a not too warm summer day, much less than our body
temperature. After pressing, the oil comes out at 25 degrees, about 'room
temperature', without any
'washing' with cold water. I repeat, the legal definition does not resolve
the problem of 'what is cold pressed', it would be much helpful to have one
and to be able to certify the temperature. But I am afraid it would be
another thing for frauds. The first olive press I mentioned had the oil
coming out of the separator centrifuge with over 40 degrees, but then they
added cold water 'to wash the oil' and at the end it came also out at 25
degrees.(+ACE-)
Unfortunately the consumer does not know anything about this and is not able
to know the difference and it is also very, very difficult to make them know
and understand it. This is what I meant.
Volker


Message: 3
Date: Thu, 26 Aug 1999 10:52:52 +-0000
From: +ACI-Adrian D. Shaw+ACI- +ADw-Adrian.Shaw+AEA-aber.ac.uk+AD4-
Subject: Re: Digest Number 162

+AD4- Nearly nobody knows that extra vergine is
+AD4- always 'first' pressing (anyway never seen anybody who presses twice: the
+AD4- second extraction, if any, is always chemical) , that 'pressed cold'
doesn't
+AD4- mean anything because there is no legal or general definition of what this
+AD4- means.

From Kiritsakis +AFs-1+AF0AOw- the IOOC rules state that
Virgin olive oil is the oil obtained from the fruit of the oil tree ... only
by mechanical or other physical means under conditions, +ACoAKgAq- particularly
thermal +ACoAKgAq-, that do not lead to alterations in the oil .....

As heating olive oil leads to alterations in the oil, and as heating is
specifically mentioned, I would take this to be a definition.

Adrian

+AFs-1+AF0- Kiritsakis, A.K. (Ed) (1991) Olive Oil, American Oil Chemists'
Society,
Champaign, Illinois.
--
Adrian.Shaw+AEA-aber.ac.uk
Institute of Biological Sciences, University of Wales,
Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, Wales
http://pcjagg.dbs.aber.ac.uk/index.html
</pre>
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