Innovative cyclone to improve olive oil quality: preliminary results.

Olive oil is a fundamental fat source in the Mediterranean diet, and its quality is strictly related to the extraction process, which consists of the breakage of olive fruits to obtain a paste that is firstly malaxated and then centrifugated to obtain an oily must which still contains a small amounts of residual vegetative water and impurities, r equiring a further cleaning generally performed by a disc stack centrifuge. This operation could produce negative effects on olive oil quality, due to the loss of stability and oxidative reactions. In this research activity authors describe the results obt ained in trials carried out in a olive oil mill, to define the design parameters of a innovative cyclone based on a mild centrifugal separation, in order to evaluate the effect of final centrifugal separation on olive oil quality in comparison with traditional centrifugal separation. At regular time intervals several samples were collected to evaluate the influence of the proposed innovative process on oil quality: Control (samples collected from the decanter), Sedoil (samples collected from the pilot plant) and Cenoil: (samples collected from the vertical disc stack centrifuge). Within 48 hours after the treatment, some parameters were determined as free acidity (TA), peroxides (PV), chlorophylls (Chlo), carotenoids (CAR), specific extinction coefficients K232 and K270, total polyphenols (POL) and turbidity (TUR). Results showed that the separation system had a significant effect on the chemical attributes of the olive oil: from the obtained results Sedoil was characterized by significant differences (p-values<0.05) in POL, PV, CHLO, CAR, K232 and K270. Not significant differences were found in FA e TUR. The collected data will be used to define the design parameters of an industrial plant.