When it comes to producing high-quality olive oil, every step of the process matters—from the way the olives are grown to the methods used in pressing and storage. At Masseria, we are committed to maintaining the integrity and freshness of our olive oil through meticulous storage practices.

Bottling Multiple Times a Year: Ensuring Peak Freshness

Olive oil, unlike wine, does not improve with age. Instead, its quality degrades over time when exposed to air, light, and heat. To ensure our customers receive the freshest product possible, Masseria bottles its olive oil multiple times throughout the year. This approach helps preserve the vibrant flavors and nutritional properties, providing an exceptional experience every time a tin is opened.

In the olive oil industry, it's common to bottle the entire harvest all at once. However, once bottled, the clock on oxidation starts ticking. By the time the oil reaches the customer, it may have already spent months degrading in quality, leading to the breakdown of beneficial compounds like polyphenols and antioxidants. At Masseria, we avoid this by bottling in small batches throughout the year, minimizing the time the oil spends oxidizing. This ensures that every tin is filled with fresh, aromatic olive oil that retains its full nutritional value.

The Benefits of Small 500mL Containers

In addition to our bottling schedule, Masseria takes extra steps to protect the quality of our olive oil by packaging it in small 500mL containers. This size is not just convenient; it's also crucial for maintaining the oil's freshness and flavor.

Smaller containers have several advantages over larger ones. First, they reduce the amount of time the olive oil is exposed to air after the container is opened. Once olive oil is exposed to oxygen, it begins to oxidize, which can lead to a loss of flavor and nutritional value. By packaging our olive oil in 500mL tins, we ensure that the product is used up within a shorter time frame, reducing the risk of oxidation.

Moreover, smaller containers are easier to store in a cool, dark place, further protecting the oil from light and heat—two other factors that can degrade olive oil. The 500mL size is also perfect for everyday use, ensuring that our customers can enjoy the freshest olive oil without worrying about it going stale before they finish the container.

Using Argon Gas and Climate-Controlled Storage for Peak Freshness

At Masseria, preserving the freshness and quality of our olive oil is paramount. After pressing, the oil is stored in state-of-the-art, climate-controlled silos where it is protected from light, heat, and air until we are ready to bottle. To further safeguard its integrity, we use argon gas, an inert substance that does not react with other materials. By creating a protective barrier between the oil and the air, argon gas significantly reduces the risk of oxidation—a primary factor that can cause olive oil to go rancid. This meticulous process helps maintain the vibrant flavor, rich aroma, and high levels of beneficial compounds like polyphenols and antioxidants, ensuring that every tin of Masseria olive oil reaches you in peak condition, just as nature intended.

Harvest-to-Bottle Speed: The Critical First 24 Hours

One aspect of freshness often overlooked in olive oil production is the critical window between harvesting and pressing. At Masseria, we adhere to the "24-hour rule" – ensuring our olives move from tree to mill within 24 hours of harvesting, often much faster. This rapid processing prevents the natural enzymatic breakdown that begins the moment olives are picked.

When olives sit for extended periods before pressing, they begin to ferment and oxidize, developing off-flavors and higher acidity levels. Studies show that olives processed within 24 hours maintain up to 80% more of their beneficial compounds compared to those pressed after 72 hours. Our commitment to this rapid timeline is labor-intensive and logistically complex – requiring careful coordination between our harvest teams and mill operators – but the difference in quality is unmistakable.

Temperature-Controlled Pressing: Preserving Delicate Compounds

Temperature control during pressing is another critical factor in preserving olive oil's freshness and nutritional profile. While regulations allow oils labeled "cold-pressed" to reach temperatures up to 27°C (80.6°F), we maintain significantly lower temperatures throughout our process.

Our state-of-the-art mill uses water-cooled systems that keep temperatures below 22°C (71.6°F) even during the malaxation process – when the olive paste is gently mixed to help release oil droplets. This precise temperature control prevents the degradation of heat-sensitive polyphenols and aromatic compounds that give Masseria its distinctive character. When necessary, we actually cool the olive paste rather than allowing any heat buildup, ensuring that even the most delicate flavor notes and beneficial compounds are preserved.

Tin-Plated Steel: Superior Protection Against Light

Our choice of tin-plated steel containers over glass bottles isn't merely aesthetic – it's based on scientific evidence about light degradation in olive oil. Research has shown that even dark-tinted glass bottles allow enough UV and visible light to penetrate to cause significant degradation of polyphenols and chlorophyll compounds, which creates harmful free radicals within the oil.

Tin-plated steel provides 100% light protection, eliminating photo-oxidation entirely. In comparative studies, olive oil stored in metal containers retained up to 40% more antioxidant activity after six months compared to the same oil stored in dark glass. This complete light barrier is particularly important for preserving oleocanthal and oleacein – the phenolic compounds responsible for olive oil's anti-inflammatory properties and that distinctive peppery sensation that signals premium quality.

A Commitment to Quality at Every Step

Masseria's storage process is designed with one goal in mind: to deliver the freshest, highest-quality olive oil to our customers. This meticulous approach ensures that every tin of Masseria olive oil is as fresh and flavorful as the day it was pressed, bringing you the best that nature has to offer in every drop.

By investing in these quality-preserving measures – from rapid harvest-to-mill times and precise temperature control to argon gas protection, small-batch bottling, and superior packaging – we're able to deliver olive oil with substantially higher nutritional value and sensory qualities than conventional methods. While these practices require greater investment and yield less volume, they align with our fundamental belief that quality should never be compromised.

When you open a tin of Masseria, you're experiencing olive oil as it was meant to be – vibrant, alive with flavor, and brimming with all the health-promoting compounds that make premium olive oil one of nature's most remarkable foods.