Effect of Temperature, Water Content and Velocity on the Quality of Virgin Olive Oil Extracted through Three-Phase Centrifuge

Abstract

Olive is a fruit rich in oils with beneficial properties. Two important factors for assessing olive oil are free fatty acids and peroxide quality. Nowadays, due to the progress in the food industry, machinery equipment has grown. The most important part of the processing line is the decanter. In order to reach a quality oil, it is necessary to pay attention to some indicators related to the machine operations. In this research, the effect of temperature of malaxer (three levels of 30, 45 and 60 °C), the amount of water injected into olive pomace (that water content reach to 10, 20 and 30%) and velocity of the rotary cylinder (three levels of 2000, 2500 and 3000 rpm) on the amount of free fatty acid and peroxide value of olive oil that extracted from the 3-phase decanter was evaluated. According to the obtained results, the amount of acidity and peroxide of olive oil is inversely proportional to the velocity of the decanter and is directly related to the temperature of the mixer encasement and content of water.