Here are the most frequently asked questions we have received in time and affecting our world: the extra virgin olive oil Dop Lametia.

From here you can start to understand and learn more about this wonderful fruit - the olive - and the product originating from it: the oil.

DOP Lametia extra virgin olive oil contains most valuable components (oleic acid, polyphenols and vitamins), which can have a positive effect on various metabolic processes of our body. According to numerous scientific studies, it possesses unparalleled ‘nutraceutical’ qualities that have a significant role in modulating beneficial human health mechanisms.

Olive harvesting and oil extraction are performed mechanically with no use of chemicals. Hence, the different processing stages do not have any impact on the quality of the final product, which preserves all the relevant properties of the fruit it originates from.

According to the literature, those properties provide numerous health benefits:

- cardiovascular diseases: polyphenols and monounsaturated fats may prevent blood clots and help reduce inflammation;

- cancer: in order to limit the incidence primary prevention has to be promoted by focusing on risk factor reduction, which means to ban the use of animal fats from our diet and to adhere to a Mediterranean diet, of which olive oil is one of the core ingredients.

The health benefits of olive oil have also been tested for other conditions, either as a treatment or prevention.

Numerous studies have shown olive oil positive effects on hypertension, diabetes, obesity, gastric ulcer, gall stones, rheumatoid arthritis, skin diseases, and also cognitive impairments.

In conclusion, unlike other dietary fats, extra virgin olive oil is useful to reduce the risk for cardiovascular diseases and also to counteract carcinogenesis. Research on the biological effects of substances other than oleic acid contained in extra virgin olive oil on carcinogenesis is rising sharply. There is no recommendation from medical societies, disease prevention governmental agencies or nutrition committees from any country that does not stress the role of olive oil in healthy human diet.

For consumers DOP Lametia extra virgin olive oil tasting is a funny assessment method todetermine the quality of our oil and to assess its great value for money. To make the most out of your tasting experience you have to feel up physically and psychologically to degustation: you must not have a cold, use odorous substances such as perfume, eat anything or drink coffee at least one hour before tasting in order not to reduce your sensory perception.

The best way to appreciate the aromas of good olive oil is to follow the following steps:

- pour a little bit of olive oil (about a tablespoon) into a small glass;

- cup the glass in one hand and cover it with the other to trap the volatile components and aromas inside while you warm it up;

- stick your nose into the glass and take a good whiff of all pleasant and unpleasant aromas;

- take a sip of the oil and suck air through the oil, at first slowly and gently then more vigorously, to coax more aromas out of it and tickle your taste buds;

- hold it for a moment by closing your mouth while moving your tongue slowly forward against your palate;

- open your lips, with your tongue still at the top of your palate, and suck in air again;

- spit the oil out;

- keep moving your tongue forward against your palate to assess the oil aromas retronasally.

Some positive attributes that can be evaluated through the above technical tasting steps based on the intensity with which they are perceived by the taster are:

- bitter: it is a prominent taste in oil made from greener fruit (good point provided it does not prevail);

- sweet: the oil has a pleasant, little aromatic taste with a balanced pungency, bitterness and astringency; it may have a delicious almond aftertaste;

- fresh: the oil has an intense fruity flavour of fresh olives; it is not a persistent taste, and dissolves rapidly if it is not paired with a sapid, valuable and stable palate;

- green fruity: it is a lasting taste of oil made from healthy, greener fruit taken off the tree when fully mature;

- apple: used when the oil has notes of this fruit;

- pungent: a peppery sensation detected in the throat; it is typical of oils obtained from olives harvested in the early campaign;

- fresh-cut grass: it refers to oils having an aroma of freshly mown grass.

Once completed the professional and technical step of oil tasting, you can move on to the most conventional experience of pairing DOP Lametia extra virgin olive oil and local foods, including ‘bruschetta’ (toasted bread), beans and vegetables.

Olive oil is the only fat obtained from the fruits of the olive tree by mechanical extraction. Othervegetable fats like seed oil are produced by solvent extraction. Cold pressing does not alter the chemical composition of the drupes so all their natural elements - including vitamin E, beta-carotene, chlorophyll, phenolic compounds, etc. – are transferred to the final products as ‘minor’ components. Even if they are present in small amounts, they do contribute organoleptic, merceological and nutritional features to the quality of the final product.

From a chemical point of view, olive oil is composed of 98-99.5% triglycerides (the saponifiable fraction), which are glycerol esters of fatty acids. Fatty acids are made up of monounsaturated fatty acids (75%, mostly oleic acid), saturated fatty acids (16%, mostly palmitic acid), and polyunsaturated fatty acids (9%, with a higher content in linoleic acid than in linolenic acid). From a merceological standpoint, the high level of oleic acid confers olive oil greater stability as against all other vegetable oils, which have a high content in polyunsaturated fatty acids. The exclusive fatty acid composition and the presence of antioxidants make extra virgin olive oil a very good raw salad dressing, which can also be used for cooking at high temperatures. From a physiological and nutritional point of view, oleic acid stimulates bile secretion, which is paired with increased digestibility and protection of the gastric mucosa. Moreover, oleic acid has been shown to lower blood cholesterol and LDL (‘bad’) cholesterol concentrations, which are responsible for occurrence and progression of atherosclerosis.

Minor components making up the ‘non-saponifiable’ fraction account for 0.5-2% and include hydrocarbons (squalene), tocopherols (vitamin E), sterols (beta-sitosterol), terpene alcohols, pigments (chlorophyll and carotene), carotenoids (beta-carotene and lutein), phenolic (hydroxytyrosol, tyrosol and oleuropein that have an antioxidant effect) and aromatic compounds.Some of those minor components are indeed critical also from an analytical viewpoint since they can serve as markers for evaluating the oil genuineness.

As antioxidants, they are also responsible for the oil shelf life throughout the production process, from extraction to storage, until it comes to our table.

It has been shown that the extra virgin olive oil minor components protect the body’s most important macromolecules (carbohydrates, lipids, proteins and nucleic acids) from oxidation. Hence, they are useful to prevent chronic degenerative diseases (cardiovascular diseases, cancer, degenerative nerve conditions, ageing).

It has to be borne in mind that in oils designated as “OLIVE OIL” (that is not labelled as “EXTRA VIRGIN”) and in seed oils minor components are present in tiny amounts or even absent, as a result of the chemical process they go through.

The extensive orchards are grown in compliance with the EC regulation on the integratedfarming system.

Optimal harvest time goes from late September to late December. Fruits belong mostly to the Carolea variety, a typical cultivar grown in the province of Catanzaro.

Carolea is a vigorous and highly productive cultivar with an upward growth form. It is resistant to cold temperatures and drought. It produces good-sized fruits (> 4 g), elliptic in shape with a truncated base and a rounded tip. Oil yield is very high and reaches a peak in November; colour change is gradual and occurs late in the season, whereas the skin colour change is late and progressive.

Olive harvesting, exclusively from the tree in order to obtain high-quality oil, is performed mechanically through trunk shakers. As against hand harvesting, the use of mechanical aids has a considerable impact on lowering production costs. Nets are usually spread underneath the trees to catch the fruit and prevent contact with the ground. The fruit is then loaded into vented plastic bins (having a capacity of 250 kg) and sent to the home processing facility where they are pressed immediately.

Olives have to be processed soon after harvesting in order to produce the highest quality oil.

If too much time elapses between harvesting and processing, this may have a negative impact on the oil quality profile, with increasing acidity and organoleptic defects like musty and fusty flavour.

Once olives get to the processing facility, they are pressed in advanced, continuous-mode plants where they are processed by cold extraction through the following stages:

- defoliation : olives are loaded into a defoliator where leaves are removed before they begin the next;

- washing : over conveyor belts olives are taken to the washer where they are washed in cold water;

- crushing : olives are crushed into a paste;

- malaxation : the olive paste is funnelled to stainless steel pipes by means of a piston pump and fed to the malaxing vats. So the process step called malaxation begins, which involves stirring the olive paste slowly in order to promote the coalescence of small oil drops into larger ones and favours their subsequent separation by centrifugation. A short processing time and water temperatures below 26° C are fundamental prerequisites to obtain a high-quality final product. Instead, delayed malaxation and high temperatures may cause oxidation, which, in turn, promotes the degradation of antioxidant phenolic compounds and hence compromise the oil quality;

- extraction : this is achieved by centrifugation in 2.5 stages (during which olive pomace slurry and residue oil are obtained), with the addition of water at < 26° C to the olive paste. The residue oil is then funnelled into an outside extraction screw and stored in a silo;

- separation : the pomace slurry (a mixture of oil and vegetable water) is fed into vertical centrifuges: in one, part of the oil that may be present in the vegetable water is retrieved, in the other water is completely removed.

 Product process of Azienda Agricola De Lorenzo