OLIVE OIL PRODUCTION
Another tradition in olive oil culture that has not changed for thousands of years is the method of extracting oil from olives. The reason for this is that olive oil is obtained by cold pressing olives and can be eaten without the need for any chemical treatment. That is why there is no difference between the method of producing olives still found in the Middle East today and the method of producing olive oil about 6,000 years ago. Olives are crushed and made into dough. This dough is then squeezed or pressed. Finally, the oil is separated from the juice of the olive fruit (black water).
At the beginning of the 19th century, with the development of technology, hydraulic press machines were used. Today, in addition to hydraulic press machines, machines that enable olive oil to be produced by centrifugal force without applying any press to the olive paste are also used. The most common among these is the “continuous system”. Continuous system is called a fully automatic system. First, olives are sorted according to their types.
The olives poured into the pit called the funnel are cleaned from the leaves by the machine system and crushed in the crusher (the machine crumbles the kernel with three thousand revolutions). The dough that comes out of here is watered after mixing and kneading, pulp and must are separated. Oil and black water are separated from the must, taken into the oil filter tank, the last residues are removed and left in the resting tank. From here, natural oil is filled into vats, cans and bottles. The pomace remaining from the oil is ground again and used to make soap.
The pomace pulp is called pellet and is used as fuel. To obtain quality olive oil: Olives must be processed as soon as possible after harvest. Because if the olive is kept, it will ferment, which leads to a decrease in the quality of the olive oil. However, in periods when olives are “abundant”, it may be necessary to wait. In this case, olives kept without processing are stored in well-ventilated and cool warehouses, usually in piles of 20-30 cm high. Natural olive oil undergoes the following processes in order to be of high quality: Olives are collected on time, thoroughly cleaned in the oil shop without waiting for too long, rested in the most suitable containers, and preserved in a cool and dark environment.