Advances in Physical Technologies to Improve Virgin Olive Oil Extraction Efficiency in High-Throughput Production Plants

The olive oil industry has been operating for centuries, but in the last decades, significant attention has gone to the development of physical technologies that enhance the traditional extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) extraction process efficiency. Studies have validated such technologies at industrial scale in medium-sized olive oil factories. These physical technological interventions are aimed to achieve at least one of the following outcomes: (a) higher EVOO throughput by implementing a continuous uniform-heating process alternative to semi-batch malaxation, (b) increase the recovery of EVOO, and (c) enhance the phenolic content in olive oil. The present work identifies the status of what is presently achievable with these physical interventions. A systematic comparison across recent studies was conducted in factories processing beyond 1 T h(-1) olive paste. Technologies used in these studies include heat exchangers, microwaves (MW), ultrasound (US), megasonics (MS), and pulsed electric fields (PEF) individually or in combination.