Olive Processing Technologies

Code

Course teacher

Associate teachers

Status of the course

Course objectives

Students will acquire the basic theoretical and practical knowledge on the production of olives and their processing in olive oil and table olives.

Course enrolment requirements and entry competences required for the course

Learning outcomes expected at the level of the course (4 to 10 learning outcomes)

After passing the exam the student is able to:
- suggest appropriate procedures for planting of olive trees, selection of varieties, fertilization, plant protection, pruning and harvesting,
- demonstrate the basic steps in making olive oil and table olives production,
- independently perform basic tests of olive oil and table olives quality evaluation,
- choose the correct approach in solving the problems with waste materials from olive oil and table olives production,
- know the basic legislation in the field of olive oil and table olives.

Course content broken down in detail by weekly class schedule (syllabus)

1st week: Historic part - olives and olive oil through the history of the Mediterranean region and in Croatia
2nd week: Olive production - soil preparation, variety selection, fertilization, pruning, protection and irrigation
3rd week: Olive oil production - harvesting, transport, storage, processing methods of olive oil (2 and 3-phase systems), pressing
4th week: Filtering, packaging and storage of olive oil, refined olive oil and olive pomace oil
5th week: Physico-chemical and sensory analysis of olive oils, introduction to the methods of analysis
6th week: Health benefits of olive oil, impact of the individual ingredients
7thweek: Legislation in the field of olive oil
8th week: Table olives processing, harvesting, transport, storage,
9th week: Table olive production (preservation) methods, HACCP
10th week: Secondary table olives processing
11th week: Evaluation of the table olives quality, introduction to the physico-chemical and sensory testing methods for table olives
12th week: Microbiology of olives and olive oil
13th week: Legislation in the field of table olives
14th week: Waste materials from the production of olive oil and table olives,
15th week: Types and quantities of waste from the production of olive oil and table olives, its use and recycling methods
Practice: Olive analyses (maturity index, the yield of water and oil), Determination of olive oil parameters (free fatty acids, peroxide number, saponification number, iodine number), Table olives preservation methods (brine preparation, debittering, Greek and Spanish way of preserving, ”dry” preservation), Brine analyses (pH value, acidity, salt content), visit to olive processing factory and olive oil mils.

Format of instruction:

Student responsibilities

Students are required to attend classes (lectures and seminars 80%, laboratory practice and field work 100%) and actively participate in the teaching process. This will be recorded and evaluated in making a final assessment.