Olive Oil

Among vegetable oils, olive oil and in particular extra-virgin olive oil has nutritional and sensory characteristics that make it unique and a basic component of the Mediterranean diet. Olive oil has always been used over the centuries for its preventive and therapeutic properties, as well as precious and valuable dietary added fat. Extra-virgin olive oil is obtained exclusively by mechanical and physical processes including collecting, washing, and crushing of olives, malaxation of olive paste, centrifugation, storage, and filtration. The chemical compounds of olive oil that contribute to its overall therapeutic characteristics are reported in other contributions of the book. Here we deal with the basic characteristics of olive oil including production and consumption as well as technological factors influencing the olive oil quality including the qualitative and quantitative phenolic composition.