This distinction is given to commemorate the Day of the Andalusia Region, aiming to acknowledge all actions, services and exceptional virtues of Andalusian citizens or entities whose referent is solidarity and hard work in favor of other citizens. Mr. Juan Ramón Guillen, President of Acesur, was proud to receive this award that recognizes his excellent professional trajectory as well as his dedication and devotion to enhance the value of the Andalusian Olive Oil.

On the award ceremony, Mr. Juan Ramón Guillen highlighted the immense honor he felt, both as Andalusian and Spanish, for receiving this award that acknowledges his work throughout all these years. He also pointed out that this distinction is taken with greater happiness, considering the hard economic circumstances our country is facing nowadays.

Mr. Juan Ramón Guillén’s commitment to the Andalusian Olive grove started in 2010, when the Foundation carrying his own name was created, among other things, to support the declaration of the Andalusian olive grove as Human Heritage, to promote the Andalusian rural environment, to reinforce the R&D&I in the sector and to give a boost to social commitment.

This Medal of Andalusia 2012 is an addition to other numerous acknowledgements Acesur has obtained, such as the Foods of Spain Award to the best alimentary company, given by the Ministry of Environment, Rural and Marine Affairs or the Seville Capital Award, given by the Magazine Capital to acknowledge the company’s professional activity and particularly, its international expansion.

“Women for Africa” Foundation, headed by the ex President of the Government, Ms. María Teresa Fernandez de la Vega, was presented last February in Madrid, aiming to become a national and international referent entity and committed to the social and economic growth, Human Rights, Peace, Justice and people’s dignity, particularly that of the African women and girls.

This event was chaired by Her Majesty the Queen Mrs. Sofía, and was attended by many public celebrities and private personalities, presented all of them with a bottle of La Española Gourmet.

Ingredients:

• 1lt of cream

• 240gr of egg yolks

• 140gr of sugar

• 1 vanilla bar

• 280gr of passion fruit

For the white chocolate glaze:

• 150gr cream

• 110gr water

• 350gr white chocolate

• 450gr neutral glaze

Method:
Make the passion cake: Whisk the cream with the vanilla in a bowl and the yolks with the sugar in another one. Mix all the ingredients together and then, add the passion fruit. Put the frothy mixture in an oven tray and steam bake for over 40 min at 90º.

Make the white chocolate glaze: boil the cream and then, add the white chocolate to melt it. In a bowl mix the neutral glaze with the water and heat it in the microwave. Whisk both mixings together and leave aside.

Cut a piece of cake with a pasta cutter and place it in a mold, then add a layer of mousse, another piece of cake and finally, a layer of mousse. Put in the refrigerator to chill. Once cooled, glaze and add a bit of chocolate topping.

Acesur, being concerned with the respect to the environment, wants to take part on its workers’ environmental conscience and thus, they recycle the used vegetable oil. For this purpose, an oil tank has been placed at the parking area of the plant sited in Dos Hermanas. Thus, recycling is accessible to all those workers with no oil containers near their houses. Furthermore, a campaign to raise our workers awareness has been offered through different posters and brochures to give corresponding information about good recycling practices as well as its benefits.

Schools, City Halls, Institutions and Industries such as Acesur are more and more involved in the divulgation of the environment sustainable practices and the idea that the used vegetable oil may have a “second life.”

Recycling used vegetable oil isn’t a new thing. In fact, our grandmas made soap with used frying oil, water and a bit of soda, based on their knowledge of the traditional culture. However, by that time recycling used frying olive oil was just a question of exploit the resources at their disposal. Due to our current way of life, the increase of contamination and the consumption of a great amount of natural resources, recycling should be considered a necessary sustainable, ecologic, economic and social development action.

We also want to set an example for those customers of high quality, healthy and natural products, and make them realize that once these products are no usable anymore they should not be taken as garbage, but there’s still a “second life” for them that comes from recycling.

Many city councils have installed containers in the streets to make a selective collection of used vegetable oils. These containers are handled by companies that make the best use of the recycled products, as it the case of cosmetics, chemical products or bio-fuel industries.

Now we are absolutely ready to affirm that recycling used vegetable oil provides many environmental, economic and social benefits.

This new line has been made by the prestigious manufacturer Krones, which is considered as the world main supplier of bottling lines for alimentary products, water and soft drinks. Among its most important clients, worth mentioning Coca Cola, Pepsi, Granini and all beer groups in Spain such as Heineken, Mahou- San Miguel, etc.

This bottling line has been designed to produce 16.000 per hour in any format, grouped in 6 to 15 bottles per case. It’s the biggest line in the world for square bottles and this fact is a landmark not only for Acesur due to its productivity, but also for the world table olive oil processing industry, which has reached a new dimension regarding the output of this type of bottle. The line is absolutely mechanized, and it could be handled by two workers.

Our production plant in Vilches has a filling capacity of 1.000.000 mill. Liters of olive oil per 8 hour shift; it also works with an automatic logistic warehouse with room for 10.000 pallets and has an electric cogeneration plant to produce 21 megawatts apart from steam and distilled water used during the production process.

Functioning
The whole line starts with a de-palletizing pushing from the upper part  by means of which the new bottles are taken to an independent bottling warehouse through a conveyor belt. Then, a vertical conveyor leads the bottles to a normal transport level where they cross a rinser with one Variojet line. The rinser is mechanically tied with a worm gear to a filling machine containing 50 filling injectors. This Krones Sensometic VPGW machine fills the glass bottles with just a bottom subjection. This filling technique with no contact at all is suitable for products such as olive oil. To avoid the absorption of oxygen, the oil is filled with a pressurized tank. When the olive oil is taken to the filling machine, our workers also inject Nitrogen in the pipes to avoid oxidation.

Each filling valve has a bascule the exact effective content. The tare is weighted first to obtain a perfect dosage of the product. This filling technique with a spurt and no external contact has two filling speeds. The product is left to stand and then, the total weight is measured again. This version of the Sensometic VPGW olive oil filling machine has a back closed filling valve with the shape of a biphasic pneumatic cylinder.

Seven different formats
The filling machine has two cappers (connected one behind the other) one of them to close plastic caps and the other one for metal caps. This line produces in Acesur a total of seven different formats: four types of 500ml glass bottles, one format of 750ml glass bottle, one format of 1lt glass bottle and one format of 500ml PET bottle. The self-adhesive labeling machine of the line has four headstocks to avoid any output fall due to the change of label coil or any accidental break.

The production line has an automated krones Checkmat quality control, with automatic rejection, to control on line the effective content as well as the presence of both caps and labels. Furthermore, the Krones Variopack PRO fitting line has the latest technologies for fast grouping changes and control of open tops.

This fitting line is connected to a KRONES ROBOBOX automatic palletization system. The main features of this fantastic machine are its versatility, its facility to program new palletization systems and particularly, the delicate treatment of every case to for layers, which is a key point due to the fragility of the square glass bottles.

Acesur is proud of having the most efficient, modern and precise olive oil producing line in the world, and also of being backed by Krones’ best guarantees.