A New Designer Malaxer to Improve Thermal Exchange Enhancing Virgin Olive Oil Quality

摘要

A large increase in demand for high-quality virgin olive oil during the past few years can be attributed not only to its potential health benefits, but also to its particular organoleptic properties. The aim of increasing the quality standards for virgin olive oil is continuously stimulating the search for new technologies. All operations carried out during the oil extraction process aim to obtain the highest quality of oil from fruits. Malaxation is one of the most important critical points of the olive oil mechanical extraction process. The employment of wrong mixing conditions (time, temperature and atmosphere) compromise the healthy and organoleptic properties of the product. A new malaxer was projected and tested to improve thermal exchange reducing the malaxation time and enhancing the virgin olive oil quality. The experimental data showed that resistance to oxidation, total phenols and pleasant volatile compounds were higher in the extracted olive oils employing the innovative malaxer than in the extracted oils utilizing the traditional one.