Cloudy olive oil

Cloudy olive oil is an intermediate product of olive oil extraction. It is actually the initial cloudy juice of the olive drupes soon after crushing, separation and decanting and before final filtration. Normally this oil, also called veiled olive oil, is stored in tanks to settle for a period of weeks or months where clarification takes place.^{[citation needed]}

Application

Although filtered and clarified olive oil is the only recognisable and commercially available form of olive oil in the world market, cloudy olive oil is gaining increasing popularity amongst olive oil small scale producers, world class Mediterranean cuisine chefs and people with ecological background. They believe that this oil has superior sensorial characteristics compared to filtered olive oil, because it is less processed and more "green" or organic food product. Research is carried out to determine the differences between cloudy and filtered olive oil.

Nature of cloudiness

According to recent scientific evidence, cloudy olive is a special type of suspension and emulsion. Plant material from olive drupes is suspended in oil due to lack of the filtering step. On the same time, cloudy olive oil containing microdroplets of vegetative and non-vegetative water in small amounts (0.1-0.3%) forming an w/o emulsion. This unique physicochemical state of cloudy olive oil maybe responsible for the observed increased oxidative stability of that type of oil compared to the filtered one. Cloudy olive oil has higher levels of polyphenols, or polar phenols that form a complex polyphenol-protein complex. This complex interacts within the suspension/emulsion system and contributes to the formation and maintenance of the physicochemical properties of this oil.

The polyphenols found in olive oil are caffeic, vanillic, p-coumaric, syringic and p-hydroxy benzoic acids, 3-hydroxyphenylethanol and 3,4-dihydroxyphenyl-ethanol.^[1]

Natural cloudiness vs. low temp cloudiness

It has to be noted that olive oil cloudiness discussed in this article is different from the characteristic cloudiness and precipitation of olive oil due to storage at low temperatures [REF]. This type of cloudiness is the result of congealing saturated fat. When these oils are returned to room temperature, they become again transparent. Cloudy olive oil has a veiled appearance that can persist months after the oil has been returned to room temperature.

References

1. ^ Polyphenols in olive oils. T. Gutfinger, Journal of the American Oil Chemists' Society, Volume 58, Number 11, 966-968, doi:10.1007/BF02659771

• Dimitrios Boskou (2006). Olive Oil: Chemistry and Technology. American Oil Chemists Society. AOCS Press. pp. 268. ISBN 189399788X.