New techniques for the production of olive oil and olive paste were described at a seminar held in the conference centre of the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Chania (MAICH) on Thursday 27th March. The research was carried out under the EU-funded OliveTech programme by the Analytical Chemistry Laboratory of MAICH and the Institute of Agricultural Product Technology of the Hellenic Agricultural Organisation, ELGO-Dimitra, with the participation of local agricultural organisations in Rethymnon and Sitia on Crete, and Lakonia and Messinia in the Peloponnese. With one of these techniques, better quality oil, with much higher polyphenol content, is produced by the use of a new type of press.
Interviewed outside the conference centre, ELGO-Dimitra researcher Anthi Argyri, who is the programme’s coordinator explained that the innovatory method developed under the programme consists of “the use of a special press in which we employ hydraulic pressure for cold extraction. Also the use of innovatory enzyme systems to process olive paste, bypassing the fermentation process which takes quite some time.”
Ms Argyri said that these methods can be used in olive mills, bottling plants, olive processing plants and throughout the production chain. “The press is manufactured by the company Petrokolympos Energy Ltd,” she added, noting that five PDO olive varieties were processed as part of the programme: Athinolia, Manaki, Koroneiki, Throubolia and Kalamon.
During the conference, Dr Spyros Grigorakis, the chemist in charge of the Laboratory of Food and Natural Product Quality at MAICH, gave a talk entitled: “Quality criteria for olive oil and polyphenols – significance, factors which affect them and best practice”. Talking to the press, he described how analyses of the olive oil produced by the new cold extraction press were made in the MAICH laboratory.
“We measured the quality criteria of the oil produced and compared it with the conventional methods, taking particular note of the polyphenols. The polyphenols produced were quite high – three times above those in the conventional oil. … Of course it is still very early, the press in question being only at the pilot stage,” Mr Grigorakis said, adding that this method does away with different processing stages which take place in the olive mill and which downgrade the polyphenols. “The oil produced, which did not pass through those stages, showed high concentrations of polyphenols,” he emphasised.
Following Dr Grigorakis in the seminar, I.-M. Patsopoulos of ELGO-Dimitra spoke on the subject of “Production of olive paste from different Greek olive varieties with new technologies and methods – Advantages, challenges and means of improving the final product”.
European recognition for Cretan olive oil
The EU has recognised the quality of Cretan olive oil by approving its application for PGI (Protected Geographical Indication) status, Euro MP for Nea Dimokratia Manolis K. Kefalogiannis has announced. He describes this as an achievement of strategic importance for local production and the Cretan economy. “The PGI ‘Kriti’ is a tool of extroversion for the producers, a sign of quality for the consumer and a heritage for coming generations on the island,” he said.
The announcement of the PGI classification is expected to be published in the Official Journal of the EU in April. According to the Euro MP, the process was helped by targeted lobbying with the European Commission. He personally thanked officials of the Directorate General for Agriculture, members of the European Parliament, and the former minister for Rural Development Lefteris Avgenakis for their contribution.
(Haniotika Nea, 28/03/25)