Villa Pileggi takes great pride in our organically grown olive oil. Click here to find out why it is so special.

 

 

Processing

Certification

The New Press!

Processing

Have a look at our YouTube video!

The olives, pits and skins, are all ground into a thick viscous paste, which is then poured into large round hessian mats.These loaded mats are placed one on top of another around a central “spindle”; they are then manually pressed.

Once the stack has been slowly and powerfully compressed, the resultant liquid is a mixture of oil and water. The final stage is to place this liquid into large containers where the water and oil separate from each other, that is, allowing the oil to surface.
This vivid oil that emerges, liquid gold in colour, was traditionally stored in large terracotta urns, sometimes buried in the cellar floor, but nowadays, it is stored in large stainless steel drums.

This oil, labelled as “cold press”, “non blended” and “non filtered” is truly the real thing, the oil of the first pressing, the “prima spremitura” and is considered Extra Virgin.

Villa Pileggi production techniques differ from the majority of olive oil producers in several ways. Each stage is hands on labour intensive, something that larger producers are unable to emulate.This allows our product to be unique and of high quality due to the ability to give the olive grove the personal touch. Had we wanted to produce a large quantity of oil, it would have been simple to follow the lead of many producers and  buy olives as pre-crushed juice, that we could call our own and then sell as blended oil. This would dilute the product and diminish our pride in it. We, at Villa Pileggi hand pick our olives from every tree  to avoid any damage and process immediately to avoid any spoilage. Our process is dedicated, slow, traditional and labour intensive and because of this, once you taste the flavour of organically grown Villa Pileggi olive oil, you will agree that it is worth all the hard work. 

Villa Pileggi Frantoio olives are multicoloured at harvest, which gives our oil the typical Tuscan spice. This oil is one of unusual complexity, with an even and long lasting finish.

Villa Pileggi has an absolute commitment to quality, thus we work the olive grove ourselves, press and bottle the oil and take every care in processing the finest quality, because we believe that great food enhances quality of life.

We look forward to more people being able to enjoy the fruit of our labour.

 

Certification

What is Organic Certification?

This is where an organic certifying group audits a business’ methods to ensure that they comply with national or international rules, regulations and standards for organic farming and processing.
Many people certify their business to be able to reassure wholesalers, retailers and consumers that their produce is organic.
Australian Certified Organic (ACO) is Australia’s largest certifier for organic produce. ACO is a fully-owned subsidiary of Biological Farmers of Australia (BFA). The Australian Certified logo (affectionately known as the ‘bud’ is Australia’s organic industry’s leading logo). It carries with it the ability to market organic produce on both domestic and international markets with confidence and market advantage.

The logo is well recognised both in Australia, and now in increasingly key areas such as Asia, Europe and the U.S. Having the largest market share means that organic certification is now becoming synonymous with BFA certification and the BFA logo.

Certified Organic products are grown and processed without any synthetic chemicals, fertilisers or genetic modifications. Organic is not just about free chemical testing, it highlights the way food is grown and handled. The whole system is linked, soil plants, animals, food people and environment.

The standards achieved are internationally recognised and assured with annual audits by an independent external auditor for all certified operators.

Finally, the only way customers can be assured that they are purchasing REAL ORGANIC products, produced without synthetic chemicals, is to purchase products which have been organically certified with AUSTRALIAN CERTIFIED ORGANIC – NOW THAT’S CONFIDENCE. 

 

The New Press

Oliomio “My Oil”

 

A new era in olive oil extraction has begun at:

 

VILLA PILEGGI
AUSTRALIAN CERTIFIED ORGANIC
EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL.

 

The machine which engineers have been trying to produce for decades is now reality. It is now possible to produce Extra Virgin Olive Oil in an efficient and hygienic way.

The new method of extracting oil was developed using centrifugal force. Because of its hygiene advantages, the efficiencies it creates with labour, and the much expanded capacity of the new system, it is considered the way of the future for processing olives into extra virgin olive oil.

THE OLIOMIO COLD PRESS MACHINE

Today, using the continuous flow extraction system, the grower can harvest the fruit and deliver it to the Olio Mio. The fruit then disappears into a hospital-clean, stainless steel machine and then reappears out the other end as golden olive oil in excellent condition, no romance, no helping in the process and no seeing the oil squeezed out.

CRUSHING GRINDING

The olives are poured into the hopper of the Oliomio where an auger sends the olives to the hammermill/grinder. The knives push the fruit across the ridges of the hammermill screen in order to release the oil from the cells within the fruit. The objective is to tear the flesh cells to let the oil escape from the vacuoles, thus allowing the formation of larger droplets which is later separated in the centrifuge. The crushing process is designed to exit the crushing area in the quickest possible time in order not to add too much heat to the paste in this stage of the process.

MALAXING MIXING

The grinder/hammermill drops the crushed olives into the low velocity mixer. It takes the mixer approximately one hour to complete its first cycle (including the crushing/grinding process). Once the mixer is filled, a sensor or paddle sets off the pump or auger and transfers the paste into the centrifuge. The mixing paddles inside the malaxer are designed to mix the paste slowly without combining air to the paste allowing a slower rate of oxidization. The first mixing commences for  total of one hour. After the initial hour, the process is continuous.

 

OIL EXTRACTION

Finally the procedure of oil extraction may begin.
The oil exits the decanter from a stainless steel tube
located in the front of the machine.

OIL IS THEN BOTTLED

 

 

 

 

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olivesinbucket

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Gennaro operating the "press" as per traditional Italian methods - all of this hard work results in a very fine oil!

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NOW FOR SOME MODERN TECHNOLGY!

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updated 30/10/14 JCG