The extra virgin olive oil

The oil leaves the separator- Coming from cultivar to 70% and mill Leccino 30%
- Collect manual and mechanical olives by the end of November,
- The oil belongs to the category of average fruit,
- Color green to yellow,
- Appearance-veiled sky,
It 'a great flow of oil, harmonious with a fund of bitter and spicy, fruity and herbaceous with hints of artichoke.



Olive oil and its properties.

The oil is part of our history, civilization, culture and traditions.

This is the message we want to reach consumers, because they know, and therefore appreciate the good products of our land.
By, especially in young people, the desire to get in touch with reality wonderful to see him in person how they are harvested olives or how a mill.
Because we believe that education and knowledge to use this product to help them understand and better understand the richness and potential of our agriculture.

The structure of the fruit of (or drupe), has a constant composition, formed by un'epidermide (or epicarpo), a fleshy, or mesocarpo, which contains about 70% of fat; the woody core, or endocarp Provides throughout the remaining 30% of oil.

The oil begins to form with the progress of ripening of the fruit, reaching the maximum amount when the oil takes its most intense color; to begin to turn the olives do not contain oil, but a set of organic acids and sugars .
At the end of the aging oil is as follows:

50% water
20-24% oil
20% carbohydrate
6% cellulose
1.5% protein
1.5% ash

The degree of maturity reached by the drupe at harvest is crucial for determining the characteristics of, that sum that is distinctive to be perceived by consumers.

The main issues in the olive characterize quality are the organoleptic characteristics, oxidation stability, the absence of contaminants such as pesticides, plant hormones, pesticides, solvents and hydrocarbon cloroderivati, and, of course, nutritional characteristics expressed in terms of saturated fatty acids, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated, the presence of phytosterols, vitamins and natural antioxidants.

It is therefore necessary premise that it is impossible to produce an oil voucher from a raw material poor, even using the most sophisticated processes of extraction, hence arises the need for careful selection of fruits upstream, every place that directly affect their fault the result of squeezing, with the prior elimination of crops damaged by pests or affected by frost.

The characteristics we can, in fact, to distinguish products that analytical determinations may declare the same. The quality recognized extra oil is the result of two different orders of investigation: first, the chemical and physical analysis, to ascertain the actual composition in terms of percentage of fat and its degree of acidity; the other, organoleptic examination, which considers the oil in terms of its smell, and taste and evaluate the merits and defects.

It is essential to remember that olive oil is the first food for the sensory analysis, based on the panel test (especially standardized analytical methodology which operate a panel selected, trained and educated), according to Regulation EEC No 2568/91 states that oil should be subjected to tasters to determine the product group.

Vegetable oils are basically made up of compounds gliceridici (95-99,7%), acids, monounsaturated, polyunsaturated and saturated, and smaller compounds (0,3-5%) playing an important role, both nutritional organoleptic both analytical than that, in differentiating the origin and biological classification of goods.

Breakdown percentage of fatty acids:

Fatty acids saturi1 4.3% monounsaturated fatty acids 77.0% of which oleic acid 75.7% polyunsaturated fatty acids 8.7% of which: 8.1% linoleic acid linolenic acid 0.6% At the formation of color olive oil contributes a large number of fat-soluble pigments.

Names and definitions of olive oils.
Virgin olive oils: oils obtained from the fruit of solely by mechanical or other physical means under conditions, including temperature, which does not lead to alterations in the oil, which have not undergone any treatment to the washing, decantation , Centrifugation and filtration, to the exclusion of oils obtained using solvents or re-esterification processes and any mixture with oils of other kinds.

These oils are being classified and described as following:

Extra virgin olive oil whose free acidity expressed as oleic acid may not exceed 0.8 grams per 100g and the other characteristics correspond to those laid down for this category;

Virgin olive oil whose free acidity expressed as oleic acid may not exceed 2g per 100g and the other characteristics correspond to those laid down for this category;

Virgin olive oil striking a free acidity expressed as oleic acid is more than 3.3 g per 100g and / or the other characteristics correspond to those laid down for this category.

A high temperature, and when atmospheric phenomena oxidation, which also suffer from fat at room temperature, greatly accelerate their progress.

The intensity of oxidative process is proportional to the degree of unsaturation of fat (in its fatty acid content of mono-and polyunsaturated), while its action is countered by the presence of antioxidants; only olive oil reacts in a very stable the attack combined oxygen and high temperature.l 'level of deterioration that suffer when fats are subject to cooking depends on two other factors:

the level of temperature
the length of cooking time
The higher the temperature, more easily, there has been deterioration of fats, which in extreme cases, may be responsible for toxic effects.

Each fat has its own specific level of tolerance of high temperatures, defined point of smoke: in addition to that heat level, the glycerol, with the fatty acids to form triglycerides, decomposes, forming the acrolein, a substance extremely harmful to the liver .

This level must never be exceeded, it is good to remember that olive oil has one of the highest smoking among all oils, tolerating temperatures close to 300 degrees. even more critical level of heat is to be the length of cooking time: 20 minutes after exposure to temperatures not too high in fats occur the first changes, it is only after long periods of warming that will produce real toxic effects , With the formation of degradation products such as monomers and cyclic peroxides, in this case olive oil has an index of degradation significantly lower than other vegetable oils.