Sealing in olive oil’s goodness

Top chefs and gourmets worldwide love olive oil for its marvellous taste. Nutritionists universally praise its excellent health-giving properties. High in monounsaturated fatty acid and antioxidative substances, vitamin E particularly, olive oil offers numerous cardiovascular and digestive benefits. The Mediterranean diet, of which it is a principal element, is one of the healthiest in the world.

But oils, like any other foodstuff, are vulnerable to external agents and can “go off.” Olive oil is the most sensitive of all. Its worst enemies are light and air, which quickly cause it to oxidise, go rancid and lose vitamin E. If the oil’s properties are to be preserved, packaging is clearly important.

Protection against the light

For centuries, sealed ceramic amphorae and, more recently, tin cans did this job. Nowadays plastic and glass bottles are the most commonly used type of container, but translucent packaging leaves the oil open to attack. José Luis “Kiko” Ruíz-Tagle, business development officer at Tetra Pak Spain, says: “Extra virgin oil, two months after being bottled, often goes rancid owing to the effects of the light. After a certain time it loses most of the properties that make it so desirable.”

A carton package would seem to provide the solution. In Spain these cartons are used for a highly diverse range of foodstuffs but not, until now, for olive oil, which may seem surprising given its importance in the Spanish diet.

Revolutionary spout

José Luis and his team has developed a Tetra Prisma package that is leak-proof and boasts an outer layer of metallic film that allows for optimum print quality. In addition a revolutionary spout system for opening, pouring and resealing has been developed with help from Novembal, a manufacturer of opening systems and part of the Tetra Pak group.

Together they worked out a system by which, when the consumer twists off the cap to open the carton, another mechanism is activated that turns in the opposite direction and perforates the internal aluminium seal by means of a set of jagged “teeth.”

The carton, now in the trial stage at selected outlets, is currently available in 1L size but soon, it is hoped, will also be adapted for 500 ml. It has been developed in partnership with ArteOliva, a new Spanish oil producer.

The strategy to be followed for commercial success is, says José Luis, “to convince retailers and consumers that they are getting added value, namely oil that is protected from light and thus possesses a longer shelf life and retains its health-giving properties.”

For more information please contact José Luis Ruíz-Tagle, Tetra Pak Spain