Process — The production of olive oil

The diagram illustrates the sequence of stages by which olives are turned into bottled olive oil.

Overall, the process is linear and consists of eight stages, beginning with the harvesting of the fruit and ending with bottling for sale. Notably, the entire operation is mechanical, relying on crushing, stirring and spinning rather than on heat or chemicals.

At the first stage, ripe olives are shaken from the trees onto nets spread on the ground, after which they are washed and any leaves and twigs are removed. The clean fruit is crushed into a paste, stones included, and this paste is then stirred slowly in a process known as malaxing, which allows the tiny droplets of oil to coalesce into larger ones.

The oil is then separated from the paste in a centrifuge, which spins the mixture so that the water and solid residue are thrown out. The oil that remains is left to settle in steel tanks, protected from light, before being filtered to remove any fine particles that would cloud it. In the final stage the clear oil is bottled, labelled and boxed, ready for sale.