Polyphenol-Enriched Olive Oil via Concentrate Mixing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional methods for producing virgin olive oil struggle to achieve high polyphenol levels, particularly hydroxytyrosol, without adversely affecting the oil's taste or shelf-life, making it difficult to maintain the desired health benefits and commercial competitiveness.
Innovation Solution
A process that involves transforming olives into an oily must, separating it into oily and aqueous juices, and then concentrating the vegetation water to create a polyphenol-rich concentrate, which is mixed with the base olive oil to enhance its polyphenol content, achieving concentrations of over 300 ppm with 10-120 ppm of free hydroxytyrosol without forming emulsions or deposits.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional production processes are used to obtain high polyphenol levels in olive oil, then the antioxidant effect and shelf-life are improved, but the organoleptic quality deteriorates due to bitter taste
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts polyphenols from olive pomace (the solid residue after oil extraction) and adds them back to the refined olive oil. This separates the polyphenol extraction from the oil extraction process, allowing the oil to be refined without polyphenols while the polyphenols are purified separately and then recombined, avoiding the bitter taste associated with traditional high-polyphenol extraction methods
Solution Approach 2:
The invention recovers polyphenols from olive pomace, which would otherwise be discarded as waste material. By extracting polyphenols from the pomace and adding them to the refined oil, the process recovers valuable antioxidants that would be lost in conventional processing, improving shelf-life without compromising organoleptic quality
2Reliability
If polyphenol enrichment is achieved by increasing hydroxytyrosol amount, then the health benefits are improved, but the commercial value decreases due to consumer rejection of bitter taste
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts polyphenols separately from olive pomace and adds them to refined oil in controlled amounts. This allows the oil to achieve high polyphenol content (providing health benefits) while the refining process removes other compounds that cause bitter taste, thereby maintaining commercial value and consumer acceptance
3Quantity of substance
If conventional extraction methods are used to obtain polyphenols from vegetation water, then the polyphenol content is improved, but the energy consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The invention changes the extraction parameters by using supercritical carbon dioxide instead of traditional solvents. This method achieves high polyphenol extraction efficiency without the high energy requirements of solvent evaporation and removal, as CO2 is simply pressurized and then depressurized to recover the polyphenols
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This method effectively increases the polyphenol content in olive oil, ensuring longer shelf-life and maintaining organoleptic quality, while overcoming the limitations of existing methods by achieving higher polyphenol concentrations with lower energy requirements and preserving nutritional and health benefits.
Implementation Method 1
mixing the base olive oil with the concentrate in order to cause a transfer of polyphenols from the concentrate into the base olive oil
Data Source
AI summary
A process for making olive oil having a high polyphenol content and, in particular a high hydroxytyrosol content, comprises the conventional steps of transforming (II) olives (1) into an oily must (5); of resolving (V) the later into an oily juice (7), from which a base olive oil (8) is obtained, and into an aqueous juice (6) containing most of the polyphenols; and of separating (VII) the vegetation water (9) from the aqueous juice (6). Moreover, according to the invention, steps are provided of removing water (XV) from the vegetation water (9), preferably by evaporation, so as to obtain a polyphenol-enriched concentrate (11); and of mixing (XIX) the concentrate (11) with the base olive oil (8), so as to transfer said polyphenols from the former to the latter and to obtain a final polyphenol-enriched oil (12), along with an exhausted concentrate (11′). The step of removing water causes a polyphenol concentration increase, to enhance their interphase transfer, and, at the same time, it causes a viscosity and density increase, which makes the water phase, during the contact with the oil, less prone to form emulsions than the methods of prior art. The high polyphenol concentration remarkably improves the organoleptic quality of the oil and makes the latter more stable, besides producing well-known advantageous effects for the consumer's health. According to further aspects of the invention, an apparatus is provided for making such oils, as well as a concentrate for use in olive oils and also in any other vegetable or animal food oil, in cosmetics, bio-repellent products and the like.