Green Gold Int. is a Bulgarian company processing wine-making residues into high-value-added products. One of those products is our cold-pressed extra virgin grape seed oil.
It took a lot of effort and perseverance to get to a technology that yields a quality final output. The many stages of processing the initial raw material – grape pomace, as well as the direct input for oil making – seeds, require non-standard equipment and non-standard processing conditions (temperature, vacuum, equipment resilience) that we had to uncover on our own and only subsequently implement. A number of food scientists and machine engineers have consulted us through our journey, some to a lesser and some to a larger degree of success, in order to arrive at the matrix of a process that does not fail to process the input nor harms its natural properties.
Since starting in 2018 as a small pilot project, the technology saw considerable experimentations, scale-backs, change and upgrades, as well as the difficulties for manufacturing start-ups brought on by the pandemic. We are now at a stage where almost all of the equipment is custom-built for our purposes, which means the process is becoming more streamlined, contributing to a higher standard in our final outputs.
As of September 2022 Green Gold Int. has actively commenced the purchase of grape marc from wineries in the Thracian Valley region of Bulgaria. The rich wine making tradition of the area supplies the perfect soil for the start of our production. We cooperate with a number of wineries and source both white and red grape marc, which is the by-product of wine making.
After arriving at our facilities, the raw material immediately goes through many stages of processing that ultimately yield a perfectly clean and dry seed ready for pressing. At least 4 stages of cleaning and separation, two phases of drying – in optimally controlled temperatures that do not damage the seed and its oil content – are just the beginning of grape seed oil production.
Since the seed of the grape is hard, Green Gold Int. has developed special presses with high-grade steel that is not easily eaten away or broken by the hard-shelled seeds. The pressing is additionally engineered so as to extract the oil at the lowest temperature possible – 37.5 Celsius.
In between pressing and storage, low temperatures are utilized to purify and gently filter the oil. The fresh oil is kept under vacuum and nitrogen to ensure its stability and purity. We do not refine the oil, we do not do second press, nor do we bleach it, deodorize it or dewax it with chemical agents.
Green Gold’s resulting cold pressed extra virgin grape seed oil has its trademark quality simply due to our unique cold press technology and careful handling of the inputs.
Contact us to learn more about our technology, our portfolio, or our upcoming projects.
