HOW OLIVE OIL IS MADE

Information produced by

A SUPPLIER OF BULK OLIVE OIL

& EDIBLE OIL INGREDIENTS

800.689.7510 8629 S 208th St, Bldg O

Kent, WA 98031 www.centrafoods.com

Olive oil is the liquid that comes from

olives.

Put simply,

Olives are a type of fruit, that are grown on trees.

That makes olive oil, technically, just fruit juice. © Kevin Carlin,

The Noun Project

in mild or temperate climates.

Olives trees grow in groves,  

The majority of these groves are located in the Mediterranean.

Especially,

© James Christopher, The Noun Project

Spain italy

&  

© Ted Grajeda, The Noun Project

But good olive oil is made all over the world, in places like

Argentina, Australia & the US. © Andrew Forrester

The Noun Project

The harvest happens in the wintertime.

Whenever that happens to be in that hemisphere.

© Lil Squid The Noun Project

Olives grow plump over the season.

Then they are harvested.

Some olives are

hand picked, while others

are machine harvested.

But the debate is still out about which harvesting method produces

better olive oil.

© Paulina Szatanik The Noun Project

There are many different types of olive oil known as

varietals.

© Jane Wiley The Noun Project

Each olive varietal has

a slightly different taste.

Most olive oils

are made from

a blend of different

olive varietals.

Some olive oils are produced from just one type of olive. Those

oils are known as

monovarietals. ❶  

Olives are picked from the groves and immediately brought

to the manufacturing mill.

.

At some farms, the mill is right on site.

© Ana Maria Lora Macias The Noun Project

Other mills function as a co-op, with many farmers bringing their olives

to one shared mill.

© Nicolas Ramallo The Noun Project

At the mill, the olives are washed in cold water.

.

Then the olives are

crushed into a paste .

In old world traditions, big stones crushed the olives.

© Grufus The Noun Project

Now, crushing is usually

done with Steel blades.

.

In old world traditions, the paste was loaded on

to mats and squeezed.

In modern times, the oil is spun in a centrifuge.

Image by © Arturo Yee, Flickr

This is what a centrifuge looks like inside.

Image © www.oliveoilsource.com/page/equipment-explainedProject

It works like the spin cycle of a washing machine, separating the

oil from the olive solids.

© Megan Sheehan The Noun Project

The oil that comes out of this initial production run is known as the “first press”.

But technically, it should be called the

“first spin ”.

If the oil is produced without using heat, it’s

known as the

“first, cold press”. This term actually comes from

an antiquated method that used hot water to get more oil from the paste

during secondary pressing cycles.

Sometimes the oil is filtered to make it crystal clear.

And sometimes it’s not, which is called

unfiltered oil.

©Alberto Galindo The Noun Project

This initial oil that comes out is the purest olive oil, and it is called

Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

It is the highest quality of olive oil, and is coveted around the world.

But, to be called

Extra Virgin it has to meet a few quality

requirements.

© Aaron Dodson The Noun Project

It has to have an

Acidity level

below 0.8

© Márcio Duarte The Noun Project

And it has to meet about 20+ other chemical

requirements.

© Rafael Farias Leao The Noun Project

But that’s not all.

It also has to taste good.

A trained taste tester makes sure that it is Extra Virgin Olive Oil & that the oil doesn’t have any faults.

Image © Maretta Stiles, Flikr  

If he doesn’t think it’s up to par, or the acidity is above 0.8, it’s called

Virgin Olive Oil.

The reason some olive oil turns out to be Virgin instead of Extra Virgin often has to do with the weather and other natural factors...

© Maurizio Fusillo The Noun Project

…like how fast the olives begin to !"#$% in the sun after they are harvested, or while in transport.

…It also just has to do with the olives, the climate,

and how they were grown.

© Parmelyn The Noun Project

Sometimes, people want

a lighter tasting olive oil, with a

lighter color.

To get this light color & taste, virgin olive oil is refined.

© Ilsur Aptukov The Noun Project

This is a High heat

process that removes a lot of

the oil’s color and flavor.

© Laurant Patain The Noun Project

What’s left over is a lighter colored olive oil

that doesn’t really taste like olives anymore.

© Jane Wiley The Noun Project

It’s also called

Light-Tasting Olive Oil,

Extra Light Olive Oil

or L"&'( O)"v% O") on your retail

grocery shelves.

NOPE.�Those names don’t mean they’re low fat.

L"&'( O)"v% O") Light-Tasting Olive Oil

Extra Light Olive Oil “ ”

They are all just names to indicate that they’re

refined olive oil.

. . . .

If you take that Refined Olive Oil and mix

some Extra Virgin or Virgin in, you’ve created a new grade of olive oil.

This grade is simply called, olive oil or sometimes,

pure olive oil.

So, when you see

Pure Olive Oil on your grocery shelf, it’s saying that it is a particular quality grade… Not that it is original or authentic.

Pure Olive Oil is, in fact, not the “purest”

or most original grade of olive oil…

EXTRA VIRGIN IS!

Do you remember those olive solids that remained after the

extra virgin olive oil was extracted?

© Alex Fuller The Noun Project

Those bits of olive flesh, fruit and pit are called the

pomace of the olive.

That pomace still has a little bit of olive oil in it that can’t be SQUEEZED out.

But it’s in there!

© Andrew Schatz The Noun Project

Kind of like a how a wet sponge still has water in it, no matter how hard you wring it out.

© Alex Fuller The Noun Project

There’s a way to get this oil out, and it would

otherwise go unused.

Key © Bucky Clarke The Noun Project

A solvent is added

to the pomace (usually hexane).

© Kristen Lehua The Noun Project

This extracts the last possible oil from the olive.

Then the solvent

is removed. Icon © Louis Prado The Noun Project

This is the same process that’s used to produce conventional soybean oil, canola oil and many other seeds oils in the US.

© Rául Santos The Noun Project

This last remaining grade is called Olive Pomace Oil, and it is the lowest grade of olive oil.

Icon © Kristen Lehua The Noun Project

Tree © Parmelyn Olive © Jane Wiley The Noun Project

But it’s stil l made 100% from

the olive itself.

It’s important to choose the right oil olive grade, depending on what you’re using it for.

Extra Virgin is delicious on everything.

But it is a more expensive oil.

It also has a lower smoke point.

© Jory Raphael The Noun Project

(which means it

doesn’t love

high heat cooking).

Pure olive oil is perfect for baking and cooking, because it doesn’t have a strong flavor.

It also has a higher Heat Tolerance, because it’s refined through high heat.

Olive Pomace Oil is used in Soap Making, Restaurants Manufacturing & Other Industrial Purposes.

Sometimes, one of these types of olive oil will be

blended with another

type of seed oil.

© Tommy Lau The Noun Project

These are known as

Olive Oil Blends.

You can choose any kind of ratio of blend you like.

© Roman Kovbasyuk The Noun Project

Made With any kind of seed oil,

And any kind of olive oil.

The most common ratios are blends like… 75% Canola Oil & 25% Extra Virgin Olive Oil

90% Soybean Oil & 10% Olive Oil

95% Non-GMO Canola Oil & 5% EVOO

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

The bottom line is…

Anything with

olive oil is

delicious.

So eat up!

Want to learn more

about olive oil ?

Visit www.centrafoods.com

And subscribe to the Bulk Oil Blog

Information produced by.

Written by Hannah Broaddus

A supplier of

bulk oils to the

manufacturing & distribution industries