How Masía El Altet EVOO manages to achieve a high number of polyphenols
Masía El Altet’s extra virgin olive oils achieve, year after year, a high number of polyphenols.
It’s a reason for feeling great satisfaction since polyphenols are very beneficial for health.
In this post, we’ll explain what polyphenols are, what benefits they have and also the processes we use to reach those quantities which are among the highest in the world.
To be more specific, our levels are:
- HQ: 480mg/Kg
- Pre: 455mg/kg
- SS: 612mg/Kg
- HE: 628mg/Kg
What they are and the benefits of polyphenols in EVOO
Olive oil is the star component of our gastronomy and also our culture and it has multiple properties beneficial for health.
Polyphenols are a great natural source of antioxidants and anti-inflammatories. In some studies, they have put the effects of polyphenols on the same level as Ibuprofen.
In the majority of vegetable foodstuffs, we can find polyphenols, which we can also define as excellent nutrients.
Where extra virgin olive oil is concerned, these polyphenols protect the oil from ageing and prevent fats from building up in the bloodstream and obstructing vessels.
Besides its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, other great and important benefits are being studied.
Consuming it helps in the fight against cancer, it regulates the stabilization of blood sugar levels and aids in the reduction of resistence to insulin and neurodegererative diseases.
It also helps in weight control.
For all of these reasons, at Masía El Altet, we are very satisfied that we have high levels of polyphenols in our extra virgin olive oils.
But, how do we manage that? We’re now going to explain some of our methods.
Drastic changes in temperature between day and night.
One of the factors which influences obtaining polyphenols is the drastic change in temperature between day and night.
On our Masía El Altet estate, situated in the interior of the province of Alicante and only 30 Kms as the crow flies from the Mediterranean, during the summer, very cool temperatures are registered in the morning (about 10 degrees Centigrade) and very high ones during the rest of the day, on many occasions often above 30 degrees Centigrade.
A difference of 20 degrees which contributes to the increase in levels of polyphenols.
What we’re talking about here is temperature range or fluctuation which has a lot to do with the quality of olive oil.
We’re talking about the difference that exists between a maximum and a minimum temperature in the same place. Or, the maximum and minimum that exist within a particular period of time.
Early harvesting
By harvesting of our olives early, we achieve greater quality. We sacrifice quantity for quality.
The yield of each olive is less when it’s still at the pre-ripening stage, that is to say, still green.
We obtain less litres per kilo of olives but greater aroma and flavour.
This early harvesting also contributes to our achieving a higher number of polyphenols.
A greater quantity of vitamin E and antioxidants are also achieved.
At Masía El Altet, we collect the green olives at the beginning of the month of October.
In that way, besides achieving an increase in polyphenols, we also achieve an oil which is of a more vibrant colour and with greater flavour.
The best extra virgin olive oils in the world are produced by collecting the fruit early.
It’s obvious that in order to achieve all that we’re saying in these lines, we need to work very quickly transporting the olives to our oil mill and using the best food technology to produce a product of an excellent quality.
Watering contolled by drip irrigation
Another of the factors which helps us to obtain that quantity of polyphenols so beneficial for our health is watering by drip irrigation, where we put each olive tree under controlled water stress to increase not only the quality of the extra virgin olive oil but also the number of polyphenols.
It’s true that the olive tree is considered to be a tree which grows in areas where water comes only from the rain but we’ve introdued the system to be able to make a more efficient use of natural resources.
Drip irrgation allows us to provide the tree with the water deemed necessary without water loss through evaporation or the water simply running off the land.
We are extremely careful about water provision through drip irrigation because if badly done or through incorrect programming, we could even cause damage on our olive grove.
It’s also necessary to have a perfect knowledge of the climatology of each area in order to carry out drip irrigation. And obviously, to have sufficient water to carry out that type of irrigation.
With drip irrigation, we also increase the kilos of olive harvested by more than 150%.
When all’s said and done, we apply the most modern methods to have a product of greater quality. The olive groves at Masía El Altet are the most productive in the world.
To be more precise, in years when the harvest is good, each farmed hectare at Masía El Altet, situated in the mountains of Alicante, produces between 8,500 and 9,000 kilos, whilst in the rest of Spain, the figure stands at 530 kilos.
This is all we wanted to tell you about the number of polyphenols we achieve in our Masía El Altet extra virgin olive oils. Polyphenols have enormous benefits on health and are amazing antioxidants with anti-inflammatory properties. The number of polyphenols also also serves to measure the quality of EVOOs. In this post, we’ve told you about the methods we use to obtain those good figures.