Cold pressing: all the quality for extra virgin olive oil

Cold pressing is a technique for extracting oil that guarantees higher quality.

Knowing the oil production techniques allows consumers to buy a good product in a conscious way. To preserve the essence of the fruit of the olives and produce a quality food, the Cancila oil is strictly cold pressed.

What does it mean?

From a first phase, in which the olives are ground mechanically and at room temperature, a paste is obtained. The latter is subsequently subjected to the malaxing phase: it is mixed in a machine equipped with sharp blades that separate the oil molecules from their matrix.
The extract obtained is then placed on the fiscoli and undergoes the action of a press, from which the separation of two parts is obtained: a solid one, which is discarded and further processed to obtain other oil residues; a centrifuged liquid to permanently remove the water from the oil which, at this point, will be suitable for being classified as extra virgin.
The process is called “cold” (cold pressing) because it acts at temperatures no higher than 27 ° C, established by a community law.

The temperature is constantly measured by probes which, throughout the extraction process, ensure that it never rises above 27 ° C.

High temperatures certainly allow to increase the extraction efficiency and yield of the olives, but at the same time decrease the quality of the oil and modify some organoleptic parameters. As the olives are processed at higher temperatures and for longer times, the oil loses its fruity scent in favor of sweet notes.

Cold pressing, on the other hand, allows the organoleptic, physical and nutritional characteristics of the extra virgin olive oil to remain unaltered, preserving all the properties of the olives: the amount of mineral salts, vitamins and polyphenols are preserved despite the extraction from the fruit.

In particular, polyphenols are antioxidant substances capable of guaranteeing a real therapeutic action for humans and the stability of an oil. They also perform other functions, including antibacterial, antiviral and anti-inflammatory action.

Through cold pressing. Azienda Agricola Cancila chooses to enhance the virtues of extra virgin olive oil, keeping alive and intact the tradition that makes our country an excellence recognized all over the world.