October 17, 2019 – The Al Torcio oil mill in Novigrad, owned by olive grower Karmin Beletic, welcomed the first state-of-the-art olive oil mill in Croatia.
Glas Istre caught up with Beletic, who explained the technology and all its benefits. For example, how the cooling system allows 30 percent more polyphenols to remain in the oil.
“There is no such modernized oil mill within 500 kilometers, or even in parts of northern Italy, so I am flattered that the first state-of-the-art mill was opened in Istria, known as the best olive oil region in the world,” said Beletic.
The newest technology on the market today comes from DMF Pieralisi. The mixers of their Molinova ORO series, in combination with the mill, cools the olive paste during production, thus, making it one of the most modern machines in the world.
Namely, when grinding the olives, their temperature in the mill is further increased by another four to five degrees due to the friction of the particles, which negatively affects the quality and preservation of the oil values. Thus, the cooling system enables temperature control and allows the olive paste to be cooled.
“Another exception to this oil mill is that it uses DMF technology – the Leopard 5 decanter, with a processing capacity of two tonnes per hour, that is, a multiphase decanter, which means that it is done in several stages. Previous machines worked in two or three phases, and each of these processes had its advantages and disadvantages. This processing method combines all the best of both phases mentioned above,” said Beletic.
The great novelty is also that no water is added to the process itself, so the polyphenols contained in the olive paste are not melted in water. Thus, up to 30 percent more polyphenols in the oil are retained in this way.
At the same time, the problem of disposing of the later formed olive vegetation water, which is a high burden for each oil mill, is also solved.
“Another special feature is our certificate for organic production. Namely, the oil mill has four mixers of 800 liters each, in which four batches of oil from four different manufacturers can be processed, which allows us to wash the system between processing. Thus, there are no remnants from previous producers, which gives everyone their own and pure organic oil,” Beletic concluded.
You can see photos of the new oil mill in Novigrad here.
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