Improving quality, increasing yield: Polytec helps optimize olive oil milling 

Traditional batch testing leaves mill operators blind to raw fruit variations before pressing, forcing reactive, or completely missed, interventions. Continuous in-line NIR analysis on the incoming conveyor transforms oil-content visibility into proactive control, enabling real-time adjustments in malaxation and decantation. Without pre-press visibility into raw olive quality, mill operators cannot intervene effectively during production to safeguard or elevate final product parameters.

To overcome this blind spot across the entire process, the complete industrial processing line—from raw fruit reception and multi-stage extraction down to final purification—must be viewed as an interconnected, continuous ecosystem rather than isolated processing steps.

Raw fruit reception: A non-contact distance measuring head measures the olives upon delivery. The entire delivery is measured rather than just a few grams in a lab, which fails to provide a reliable statement on oil content across the entire load. Upon delivery, the customer recognizes the quality of the raw material and can adjust the downstream process accordingly.

Extraction: Another measuring head (contact measuring head) is attached to the outlet of the decanter to measure residual oil content and moisture content after extraction. Pomace is not a waste product, but is further processed as lower-grade oil (lampante oil) or used in the animal feed industry; therefore, it is important that the oil amount is neither too low (diminishing the market/sales value of the pomace) nor too high (otherwise high-value, high-price extra virgin olive oil is lost).

Purification: A third measuring point (contact measuring head) measures the quality of the olive oil after purification. Using a specially developed transflection adapter for the contact measuring head, the acidity degree of the olive oil is determined here, which is decisive for quality classification (extra virgin / virgin...).

• Quality (oil content) can be determined right upon delivery of the olive fruit.
• The extraction process (decanter) can be optimized to make ideal use of oil quantity and oil content in the pomace.
• Produced olive oil can be tested inline for its quality grade. "Single-variety" oil can be stored accordingly, and mixing different qualities is avoided.

We support agricultural and food-processing equipment manufacturers, integrators and mill operators in implementing spectroscopic inline analysis — from the initial feasibility study and customized optical head design to industrial integration.