Following on the emergence of Keurig-like devices for everything from juices and soups to marijuana, an Italian startup has designed a counter-top appliance for pressing your own olive oil on the spot.
The second edition of Seeds & Chips, an international summit dedicated to food innovation, brought startups, companies in food and tech, investors, thought leaders and policymakers to Milan for four days of conferences, networking, and a hackathon focused on food technology and the ‘Internet of Food.’ It’s where we discovered two startups developing innovative projects featuring EVOO.
RevOILution
Following on the emergence of Keurig-like devices for everything from juices and soups to marijuana, an Italian startup has designed a counter-top appliance for pressing your own olive oil on the spot.
“RevOILution is the only solution in the world to offer extra virgin olive oil ‘espresso,’ ” said the CEO and founder of the project, Antonio Pagliaro. “We allow you to have fresh extra virgin olive oil at any time of the year customized according to your taste.”
By pressing a button on the small device you will obtain, in about 45 minutes, 20 servings of custom-made EVOO. The appliance employs a ‘Bag d’O’ — “olive pulp from different varieties, without pits, accurately selected and frozen, in order to obtain a high-quality extra virgin olive oil,” Pagliaro explained. The residual part can be reused to make an olive tapenade.
“Our RevOILution allows you to have extra virgin olive oil whenever you want, eluding the loss of nutritional quality and aromatic intensity that occur over time,” Pagliaro explained. The device will be available by the end of 2016. “After two years of research, thanks to the collaboration of universities, companies in the sector, growers and research centers, everyone will be able to produce his own EVOO at home.”
RevOILution Pro will be the next step. Designed for those who already have their olives, it will produce up to 1 liter of extra virgin olive oil, pressing the whole fruits. It will be available in a limited number.
The RevOILution team includes Antonio Pagliaro, a finance and marketing entrepreneur; Francesco Buzzo and Serena Lambertoni, award-winning designers (Lambertoni is a member of Mensa); Gianni Orazietti, with 40 years of experience in the field of olive oil machinery; and Giuseppe Schipani who takes care of the digital sector and e‑commerce. About 30 people were involved in the project, including collaborators from the University of Tuscia.
OOXX
“OOXX (Olive Oil eXtra eXperience) speaks to those who want to live a new and emotional food experience, and to exploit extra virgin olive oil qualities and nutritional processes,” said Stefania Saitta, director of Italolive.
Born of an idea of Rosalinda Lopergolo, a founder of the startup, OOXX offers a solution to those who have already chosen to consume healthy and quality foods but ignore the potential of extra virgin olive oil. “The beneficial effects of EVOO are preserved if and only when the entire conservation process is safeguarded. In this sense, the ‘enemies’ to be fought are low or high temperatures, oxidation and exposure to light,” Saitta explained.
The OOXX system allows an effective control of the TOL (temperature, oxygen, light) effects. It contains eight single-dose (10 ml) glass ampoules with different types of Italian olive oils kept in darkness at a cool and constant temperature between 10 and 15°C (50 – 59°F). Thanks to its passive cooling system, OOXX promises to keep a ‘mill-fresh’ product on the table for up to two hours.
“OOXX provides technology, innovation and design through a three-step process: Selection of high quality producers; certified bottling protocols and controlled logistics, temperature-controlled transport and storage through dedicated distribution; and the use of OOXX BOX, the innovative element that represents the synthesis of the OOXX process and its natural continuation on the table,” the director explained. “The project provides for the involvement of a wide and selected range of Italian olive mills, in order to allow the consumer to choose from the best EVOOs representing all of our territories.”
The Italolive team consists of the president, Ivano Prencipe; the creator of the project, Rosalinda Lopergolo; Stefania Saitta and Francesco Mussa and Alessia Sarcinelli.
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