A Predictive Classification Model for the Management of Virgin Olive Oil Filtration at Industrial Scale

Precoat-bodyfeed filtration of virgin olive oil was investigated on an industrial filter-press plant. Several chemical parameters of the unfiltered oil were measured and the relationship with filtration performances was investigated by Principal Component Analysis. Further, Linear Discriminant Analysis was applied to develop a pre- dictive model for oil filterability. Principal Component Analysis allowed the construction of latent variables which were used to sep- arate oil groups and to select variables for Linear Discriminant Analysis. The developed linear model gave an overall correct recog- nition of about 88%, good enough for a convenient filterability prediction of oil at industrial scale.