What is olive pomace oil?

Olive pomace oil is obtained from the residue left after olive oil production. The Turkish Food Codex settles the naming question in one sentence: "Pomace oil may under no circumstances be named olive oil." It is a separate product with its own label and its own uses.

At its simplest: pressing olives leaves a residue behind, and that residue still holds oil the press cannot reach. A plant pulls it out using a solvent, then refines it. The result is cheap, odourless and holds up to frying — but it is not olive oil and cannot be sold as such.

What is pomace?

Pressing olives yields three things: oil, vegetation water and pomace — the solid residue of pit fragments, skin and pulp. Oil remains locked in that residue — roughly 8–12% on a dry basis — beyond what the mill can mechanically recover. That is the technical and economic limit of the press.

Put simply: you press the olives, most of the oil comes out, and a far from trivial amount stays behind in the residue. The pomace industry exists to go after exactly that.

How wet the pomace is depends on the system:

• In a three-phase system, process water is added, the vegetation water leaves separately and the pomace is drier.
• In a two-phase system, no water is added; the vegetation water stays in the pomace, producing a much wetter, paste-like residue.

The detail and its effect on oil quality is on our cold extraction page.

How pomace oil is produced

The pomace travels from the olive mill to a separate plant — a pomace oil extraction plant. Broadly:

1. Drying. Moisture is brought down to a level suitable for extraction — roughly 8%. This step matters: direct-flame, high-temperature drying can generate polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the oil. Modern plants use indirect drying.
2. Solvent extraction. The dried pomace is washed with food-grade hexane and the oil passes into the solvent. This is the fundamental divide: olive oil is obtained mechanically, pomace oil with a solvent.
3. Solvent removal. Heat and vacuum recover the hexane for reuse. The result is crude pomace oil, which cannot be consumed as it is.
4. Refining. Neutralisation, bleaching, winterisation and deodorisation bring acidity down to 0.3%. The steps are described under refined and Riviera.
5. Blending. Adding some virgin olive oil to the refined pomace oil produces the retail product "olive pomace oil", with acidity of 1.0% at most.

The official grades

• Crude pomace oil — not fit for direct consumption.
• Refined pomace oil — acidity max 0.3%.
• Olive pomace oil — a blend of refined pomace oil and virgin olive oils, acidity max 1.0%.

How it is told apart from olive oil

Not by palate, but in the laboratory. Two markers decide it:

• Waxes (C40+C42+C44+C46). Pomace oil carries markedly more wax, because waxes sit mostly in the fruit skin and the solvent takes them along. In the Turkish Food Codex the limit is ≤ 350 mg/kg for Riviera olive oil and > 350 mg/kg for pomace oil — that single row separates the two products. For extra virgin and virgin oils the bar sits far lower: the IOC standard allows ≤ 150 mg/kg for the sum C42+C44+C46.
• Erythrodiol + uvaol. These triterpenic alcohols are also concentrated in the skin: low in olive oil, high in pomace oil.

Together they reveal whether pomace oil has been blended into something sold as olive oil. See adulteration for the wider picture.

Is it safe?

Produced and refined in line with regulation, pomace oil is a legitimate food product. Inspection focuses on two things:

• PAH residues (benzo[a]pyrene). These can form if the drying stage exposes the pomace to combustion gases. EU legislation sets maximum levels for benzo[a]pyrene and for the sum of four PAHs in oils; indirect drying and activated-carbon treatment exist to manage that risk.
• Refining-derived compounds. High-temperature deodorisation is the step where process contaminants such as 3-MCPD and glycidyl esters can form in any vegetable oil, which is why process temperature control matters.

So the question is not "is pomace oil harmful" but "under what conditions was it produced and controlled". The practical answer for a buyer is to purchase from sources that name the product correctly and offer traceability.

How it is used

Pomace oil has no character — smell, taste and polyphenols are practically absent. That is not a fault but the thing that defines its uses:

• High-heat frying. A high smoke point and no flavour carried into the food; this is its common role in industrial and catering kitchens.
• Production needing a neutral fat. Canning, certain sauces and baked goods.
• Soap and cosmetics. A large share of traditional olive oil soap is made from it.
• Non-food industrial use. Lubricants and technical applications.

Where it does not belong: salads, mezze, bread, finishing — anywhere you want the oil's own aroma. That is extra virgin territory. Substituting pomace oil there costs you not just aroma but polyphenols.

What happens to the pomace itself?

Once the oil is out, the dry residue is not waste either:

• Fuel. Pressed into pellets and burned in boilers and stoves; it is a widespread biomass fuel in Türkiye.
• Animal feed ingredient and compost.
• A soil conditioner in agricultural use.

The pomace chain is therefore the link that turns the waste of olive oil production into value — and the part that lightens the sector's environmental load, since otherwise the high-organic-load residue and vegetation water would have to be disposed of outright.

How it appears on the label

The product name on the pack must read "olive pomace oil". It may not say "olive oil", may not carry a geographical indication, and may not use "cold pressed" or sensory descriptors. Its shelf price sits well below olive oil — pomace oil sold at an olive oil price is adulteration by price.

At a glance

If you are unsure what you are holding, bring a sample to our laboratory — we measure free of charge.