Bringing quality to
your meal since 2013

Our history

The first steps in this world date back to the early fifties, when Alvaro Tiranti began his own experience in the olive oil sector at our town’s oil mill. We are talking about a very different context than the current one. The days were dictated by physical work in spaces characterized by the heat of the constant burning fire in order to facilitate oil extraction and the unmistakable aroma of olives.

The stories and the passion passed down in our family, combined with the initiative of his son Graziano and his nephew Jacopo were the push that allowed us to create in 2013 the “Frantoio Sant’Amico” in Morro d’Alba. Since the beginning, we decided to produce a high-quality extra virgin olive oil, the result of the harmonious combination between tradition and technological progress.

Today, in order to satisfy all the different customers’ needs, besides producing and selling our extra virgin olive oil, we can offer milling services for third parties at our facility.

Our vision

Speed, professionalism and a deep respect for human relationships are what have characterized our family for generations. With the aim of preserving high-quality products, we decided to invest in the Alfa Laval branded technological system, operating within a well-organized and divided large workspace where cleaning and order are daily guaranteed.

The passion for modern systems, the search for solutions to optimize processing time, and the constant logistic and automation improvement, enabled us to achieve results beyond expectations and to consolidate ourselves as an active and dynamic reality, able to offer customers its own know-how.

Sustainability

We pay a lot of attention to environmental sustainability and for this reason, over the years we tried to reduce our impact as much as possible. Starting from the reuse of by-products like the pit as a combustible for the boiler of the system, passing through the waste waters used as a substrate for biogas production, to the agronomic techniques adopted in our olive groves, like the permanent spontaneous grassing, the shredding of pruning waste and, most of all, the adherence to the protocol for organic farming.

Our milling plant

Active since 2013, our Alfa Laval milling plant, a leading company in fluid separations, can guarantee continuous production, optimizing the whole extraction process.

The continuous cycle extraction plant based on centrifugation technology has now almost entirely replaced throughout the country the old presses, a traditional symbol of the extraction process but outdated for today’s customers’ quality standards. In this kind of machinery, the olive paste, obtained in the beginning stages of the process, passes through all extraction steps without stopping, thus minimizing the risks of oxidation and alteration of the final product.

The milling

Producing high-quality extra virgin olive oil requires, besides the appropriate tools, also and above all, skill and care at all stages of extraction. Let’s see them in detail below:

Quality control of olives

The olive processing process starts with the handing over of the drupes, which, after initial inspection to evaluate their goodness, are weighed and put into processing.

De-leaf and washing

The very first step involves the removal of leaves and twigs from the mass of olives by using a special machine able to blow away the lighter material and to retain only the fruits. Once cleaned, a conveyor belt leads them into the washing machine, where they are subjected to an intense washing to remove soil and waste.

Pressing

At this stage, the olives are sent to the crusher, which turns them into olive paste. We have a hammer crusher with a rotating grid. This is a critical step because it affects both the quality and quantity of the extracted oil. In fact, the temperature and the granulometry of the paste are both parameters to carefully manage to preserve the aromatic notes and the content of polyphenols, maximizing the oil extraction.

Malaxing

Another fundamental step is the malaxing. In this phase, the paste obtained is pumped into a steel tank with a hot water cavity called malaxer. In our plant, we are equipped with five malaxer up to 650 kg load each. The paste is brought to an ideal temperature of around 27 degrees thanks to the hot water that crosses the cavity in the wall of the malaxer itself. During this step, the paste is continually remixed, activating the enzymatic processes that cause the destruction of cell walls of the olives and the subsequent release of the oil vacuoles, which are present in each of the cells and tend to cluster together and form small patches of oil on the surface. The Malaxing step, excluding loading and unloading times, has a duration of approximately 30 minutes.

Separation

At this point, the paste is pumped into the decanter (or horizontal centrifugal), the true heart of the system. We have a two-and-a-half-phase decanter, able to operate with the addition of little water, separating the tree pasta components: pomace, vegetation water and oil must. The separation is based on centrifugation; at the approximate speed of 4000rpm, the olive paste separates itself into the different components stratified on different levels according to their specific weight inside the drum crusher. The pomace consists of pulp and crushed kernel, which, once cleaned, may become fuel for the boiler of the system. The vegetation water consists of the liquid contained in the drupe and the water added during processing. It’s pumped outside the plant, then collected in the tank and finally delivered to biogas companies. The oil must require further steps before becoming olive oil because it’s still rich in water and solid particles. The oil must be furthered finely separated at 6000rpm inside the separator (the vertical type), created by the engineer De Laval, the founder of the Alfa Laval company.

Filtration

The output oil from the separator is already a finished product: it’s cloudy due to the presence of suspended particulates, and, for this reason, for those who want an olive oil bright and stable over time, there’s one additional step, namely the filtration. In our plant, we use a classic cardboard filter fed by a pump. The filtered oil is now able to maintain its chemical and organoleptic properties.

Products

The extra virgin olive oil we produce is obtained using the olives from our lands located in the low-end hill of the Province of Ancona, a few steps from the sea, and, harvested in the months of October and November using battery manual facilitators.

Choose the type of oil and packaging, contact us to place the order and come and collect it directly from the oil mill or we will ship it directly to your home!

Extra Vergin Olive Oil Blend

Type: Leccino – Frantoio – Raggia – Mignola

Olive groves: Morro d’Alba – Monte San Vito – Senigallia

Description: extra virgin olive oil medium fruity, well-balanced in bitter and peppery; presence of herbaceous notes with scents of artichoke and green almond. This is the most beloved of our oils for everyday use in the kitchen and because it’s well-balanced and able to enhance any dish.

Extra Vergin Olive Oil Monovarietale Raggia

Type: Raggia

Olive groves: Monte San Vito

Description: extra virgin oil medium fruity, well characterized in bitter and peppery; important hint of green almond typical of the cultivar with herbaceous and artichoke recalls. The Raggia is the most loved and important cultivar located in the low-end hill of the Province of Ancona, much sought after and an authentic pride for the local olive growers. Genetically derived from the Frantoio type, like the other cultivars of the group (Taggiasca, Casaliva, Raggiola, Coratina), offers a good concentration of polyphenols, which allow it to be considered an excellent nutraceutical food. Due to the quality of this product, it’s better to be used raw on any food, in particular for bruschetta and similar.

Extra Vergin Olive Oil Monovarietale Rosciola Colli Esini

Type: Rosciola Colli Esini

Olive groves: Monte San Vito

Description: extra virgin oil medium fruity, with light hints of bitter and peppery; remarkable herbaceous notes to the nose but delicate on the palate, which makes it ideal for little flavor dishes or infant feeding. The Rosciola Colli Esini is a cultivar originated in Vallesina, quite rare and on the verge of extinction due to the modest number of the trees. In appearance, it’s very particular because the fruit is round, yellow, tending to pink at ripening. Unfortunally it’s a cultivar subject to parasite attacks, usually in advance and with more damage than the other types in the area.