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OLIVE OIL CLASSIFICATION

 

Most of our blog posts are shared through various sources with credits given to the writers and websites

The reason for this is because of the information overload available, and limited time to rewrite and make a compiled written info piece.

 

Just to give a basic summary before posting the copied text:

(plus giving my apologies in advance for any english spelling mishaps- this Afrikaans speaking girl will edit in due time)

 

Olive oil is obtained by crushing the freshly harvested olive fruit and extracting the oil through a centrafuge (basically spinning the olives at incredibly high speeds, separating the olive flesh, oil and water that have different densities.

The whole process needs to be temperature controlled (we aim at below 27degreesC) but I think 30 is the maximum temp allowed to be classed as Cold Pressed.

 

The oil is collected and the slush(aka pomace- pips, flesh and water-) gets pumped away **

 

When pressing Virgin Olive Oil, it means that fresh olives are pressed ONCE from the FIRST PRESS

PICK OLIVES

WASH

CRUSH

CENTRAFUGE

OLIVE OIL

FILTER

BOTTLE

Fairly straight forward

Keeping temperatures low, so extracting the oil COLD PRESSED

 

VIRGIN OIL = first press

EXTRA VIRGIN OIL = First press but when pressing at low temperatures

 

So Extra Virgin Oil will allways be COLD PRESSED and vice versa

 

We only produce Extra Virgin Cold Pressed oils.

Personal opinion: All other extraction methods through hightened temperatures to extract more oil and through refined methods compromise and lessen the quality of the oil. Unfortunately there is a market for it and as long as there is a market, it will be processed in large volumes and sold at cheap prices.

 

THEY ARE ALL REFINED OILS AND LABELED:

PURE OLIVE OIL

LIGHT OLIVE OIL

OLIVE OIL

POMACE OIL

 

The buyer of these oils are normally:

one that shops for the lowest price

producers of products that contain olive oil (the quality is low and can not be compared to a product where a high quality oil was used as a ingredient- but low production cost trumps quality)

wholesale suppliers wanting to make blends for resale

 

REGARDS

Helena