Why Modern Oil Is Centrifuged, Not Pressed

Picture a stone wheel crushing olives and a press dripping gold, and you are picturing an oil mill from a century ago. The word ‘pressed’ survives on labels out of habit — but the machine that made your oil almost certainly spins, it does not squeeze.

The imagery around olive oil is stubbornly stuck in the past — granite mill wheels, woven mats, a press oozing green oil. It is a lovely picture, and it is largely obsolete. Since the arrival of the continuous centrifugal system, which swept through the industry from the 1980s and 90s, virtually every serious mill separates oil by spinning, not by squeezing. The change was not cosmetic: it transformed how fast, how cleanly and how consistently oil could be made, and it is a big part of why good modern oil tastes as fresh as it does.

What actually happens now

A modern mill crushes the whole fruit — stone and all — into a paste, gently kneads it (malaxation) to coax the oil droplets together, then feeds it into a horizontal centrifuge called a decanter. Spinning at high speed, it separates the three things in that paste by weight: solids (the pomace), water (the vegetation water), and oil. A second, vertical centrifuge then polishes the oil clean. No pressing, no fibre mats, no squeezing under a screw. The whole run can take under an hour from tree-fresh fruit to oil in tank — which is precisely why the best of it tastes so alive.

So why does the label still say ‘pressed’?

‘First cold pressed’ is a legacy phrase from the old two-press system. Back then, olive paste was pressed once at low temperature to yield the finest oil — the ‘first pressing’ — and then pressed again, often with heat or hot water, to wring out a coarser second-grade oil. ‘First’ meant that best, initial run. But a centrifuge does not press at all, and there is no ‘second press’ for a ‘first’ to be first of. The phrase survives because it sounds traditional and reassuring, not because it describes the stainless machine humming in the building.

Is the old way better? Not really

Nostalgia says the stone press made purer oil. The trade knows better. Old presses and their reused fibre mats were devilishly hard to keep clean; stale paste and residues in the mats could taint a fresh batch with fusty, rancid off-notes. The centrifuge is faster, more hygienic, and far gentler on the oil because the fruit spends less time exposed to air. A handful of artisans still press by tradition and do it meticulously — but as a rule, the modern spun oil is cleaner and fresher than the romantic one. The wheel and the press belong in the museum, and mostly they are there.

	Traditional press	Modern centrifuge
Method	Crush, spread on mats, squeeze	Crush, malaxate, spin
Speed	Slow, batch by batch	Under an hour, continuous
Hygiene	Mats hard to clean; taint risk	Closed stainless, easy to clean
Air exposure	More — longer, open process	Less — faster, enclosed
Typical today	Rare, artisan only	The industry standard

What to take from this

• ‘Pressed’ on a label is mostly marketing nostalgia — it does not tell you the oil is better.
• ‘Cold extracted’ is the accurate modern term and a more meaningful thing to look for.
• Centrifuged does not mean industrial or cheap — the finest estates use centrifuges too.
• Freshness and a clean mill matter far more than whether the word ‘pressed’ appears.

Centrifuged vs pressed oil: common questions

Is most olive oil still pressed?

No. Since the 1980s and 90s, virtually all serious mills separate oil with a centrifuge rather than a press. ‘Pressed’ on labels is largely a legacy term.

What is a decanter in an olive mill?

A horizontal centrifuge that spins the olive paste and separates it by weight into solids, water and oil. A second vertical centrifuge then polishes the oil.

Why does ‘first cold pressed’ still appear?

It is a hangover from the old two-press system, where a gentle first pressing gave the best oil. With a centrifuge there is no second press, so ‘first’ is meaningless — the phrase just sounds traditional.

Is centrifuged oil worse than pressed oil?

Generally the opposite. Centrifuges are faster, cleaner and expose the oil to less air, so they tend to give fresher oil. Old presses risked taint from hard-to-clean mats.

Should I look for ‘pressed’ on the bottle?

Not especially. ‘Cold extracted’ plus a recent harvest date tells you far more about quality than the nostalgic word ‘pressed.’

Standard olive-milling technology (continuous centrifugal decanter systems) and EU labelling history of ‘first cold pressed.’