The project aims to reinforce the olive oil sector through capacity building for the production of high quality olive oil with health protective properties. The project will focus on the exchange of good practices in olive oil producing countries and aspires to create a pool of adequately trained stakeholders of the olive oil sector, namely: producers, olive millers, bottling companies etc. who will be able to add value to their final product. The project builds on existing know how developed within ARISTOIL project co- financed through Interreg Med programme regarding the Reinforcement of the Mediterranean olive oil sector competitiveness through development and application of innovative production and quality control methodologies related to olive oil health protecting properties. ARISTOIL has developed a database with approximately 2500 producers from Mediterranean who have already benefited from the project and participated to trainings. These producers whose number increases in the course of time can benefit also from a new project, the one proposed, which will focus not on experimentation and pilot testing anymore but instead on intensive training on topics that have been identified as crucial for all stakeholders to know in order to ensure olive oil of high quality and high competitiveness to the international markets. Training topics will be adapted to the needs of each stakeholder category, as identified by ARISTOIL project. In addition, past project under ERASMUS+ with title ECOLIVE has developed tools on distance learning regarding Organic production of Olive Oil which is going to be used to the extent that fits the purpose of the current proposal. SVIMED one of the partners of the proposed action had been a partner in ECOLIVE project too, so it will be them who will transfer this know-how to the current partnership. Producers will be trained on harvesting techniques, selection of the time for harvesting, plant protection and integrated pesticide management, olive mill selection criteria, organic production and integrated production management. Olive millers will be trained on olive oil management issues (standby temperature prior to pressing, cleanliness, etc.), temperature and time of kneading, centrifugation in the absence of water, Minimization of waiting time of olive oil in tanks before filtering. Bottling Companies will be trained on Ideal storage and bottling conditions for olive oil. Classification of olive oils with hygienic and organoleptic features.
The project aimed to reinforce the olive oil sector in Greece, Italy and Turkey, through capacity building for the production of high quality olive oil with health protective properties. The project was designed to focus on the exchange of good practices in olive oil producing countries and tried to create a pool of adequately trained stakeholders of the olive oil sector, namely: producers, olive millers, bottling companies etc. who will be able to add value to their final product. The spread of the qawareness of Health Claim use and basic guidelines in high phenoli olive oil production was a key objective too.
The project ARISTOILCAP was proposed in order to exploit the research conducted within ARISTOIL (Interreg Med) project with main aim to help olive oil sector to increase its competitiveness exploiting the EU regulation 432/2012 mentioning the use of Health Claim by Olive Oils containing more than 250mg of polyphenols Hydroxityrosol, Tyrosl or their derivatives per 1kg of oil. The initial work perfomed by the ARISTOIL projects was necessary to be developed in the form of a electronic course for professionals of the olive oil sector in order to contribute to their capacity building. The material had to be developed including up to date statistical data and information from Turkey which was not part of the ARISTOIL project, however a signifigant olive oil producer country. The capacity building of internal staff of participanting organisations and their cooperating experts has provided the possibility to create a network of key stakeholders who are interested in Extra Virgin Olive Oil rich in polyphenols and who will continue their cooperation in the field through new projects in the future covering the whole geographical area of Mediterranean.