How it is prepared
The processing
Olives should be grinded the same day of the harvesting; otherwise, they would ferment and the oil would oxidize. It should be underlined that the storage time of the olives can severely deteriorate the quality of the finished product.
The grinding consists in grinding the olives in order to obtain a compound paste or solid phase and another liquid phase of oil and water. Within the continuous method, the olive grinding is carried out in a mill with star-shaped ‘hammers’, equipped with heads or interchangeable pellets of tungsten densified steel. The milling size is regulated by the sieve’s diameter of perforation, which turns in the opposite direction than the hammers.
A dragging system enables the evacuation of the paste contained in the chamber, thus preventing jams or excessive resistance within the working process. The olive paste falls into threshing machines, where the special speed of the helical shovels of stainless steel agglutinates the particles of suspended oil to the utmost. The paste is eventually carried to the decanter through a helical-style pump.