**2.3. Oven-dried black olives by Ferrandina-style**

In Basilicata region, olives are prepared with an ancient and traditional method, Ferrandina method, which name derives from the small city Ferrandina, near Matera, where olive trees of *Olea europaea* L. *Majatica* cv. are cultivated (Savastano, 1937; Di Gioia, 1959; Cucurachi *et al*., 1971). The olives are hand-harvested at the black stage of ripening at the end of November-early December. Initially the olives are blanched in water at 90°C for 3 min to make the skin more permeable and facilitate the osmotic processes. After blanching, the olives are salted with grinded NaCl (10:1 w/w) for 3 days and finally they are placed in single layer and oven-dried in an air-oven at 50 °C for 36 hours until the humidity is around 8 % and Aw around 0.7. This product is ready to eat in 1 week. The first two steps of the process (blanching and salting) contribute to fruit debittering; the second and the final steps (salting and oven-drying) result in water loss for better preservation of the product. This trade preparation is in accordance with the "Trade Standard Applying to Table Olives" (IOC, 2004) as "dehydrated and/or shrivelled black olives", black olives that have undergone or not mild alkaline treatment, preserved in brine or partially dehydrated in dry salt and/or by heating or by any other technological process. Today, olives from cv. Majatica are almost entirely destined to the production of oil. The production of oven-dried black olives by Ferrandina-style is in drastic decline and manufacturers are few. The product is prevalently exported in the USA and not all olives sold in the Italian market as oven-dried olives originate from cv. *Majatica*.

Textural changes occurring in oven-dried olive -tissues during each processing step were visualized by scanning electron microscope, texture analyzer, analysis of cell wall

polysaccharides, pectins and biophenols (Borzillo *et al*., 2000; Marsilio *et al*., 2000; Cardoso *et al*., 2009; Piga *et al*., 2005). Recently, some authors (Lanza *et al*., 2012) evaluated chemical and nutrient characteristics of Ferrandina oven-dried table olives with the aim to enhance the value of this end product from a nutritional point of view.

Nutritional and Sensory Quality of Table Olives 353

chicken/turkey max 10%) is triturated and browned with onion, carrot and celery in olive oil and cooked on low heat with the addition of dry white wine and salt. When cooked, meat and add-ingredients are shredded and combined with beaten egg, grated cheese and ground nutmeg. The pre-pitted olives are filled with the mixture, are dipped in flour, then beaten

Table olives are a complete food from a nutritional point of view (Cannata, 1939). It is a drupe consisting primarily of water, fat, carbohydrates, protein, fiber, pectin, biophenols, vitamins, organic acids and mineral elements. The quality of this product is linked to the combined effect of various factors, such as the suitability of raw materials, the processing technologies, the nutritional composition and, in no small measure, the sensory properties. Olive fruit is a drupe, constituted by three distinct anatomical zones: epicarp (skin), mesocarp (pulp) and endocarp (stone) containing the seed. All three influence the quality of the end product (Garrido Fernández *et al*., 1997; Montaño *et al*., 2010). The epicarp and mesocarp constitute the edible part of the olive fruit that is around 70-85 %. Information on

The energy value of 100 g of e.p. of Italian olives is around 200-250 kilocalories with some exceptions (455 kcal for *Majatica* olives and 164 kcal for *Bella di Cerignola* olives; Table 3). This value, referred to a diet of 2000 kcal for an adult of average build with limited physical

> Ferrandina black olives *Majatica*

> > n.d. 4.4

Energy *kcal* 190 164 204 455 226 247 235 193 223 Proteins *g* 1.0 1.2 1.0 2.2 1.5 1.7 1.4 1.5 1.3

Fats *g* 17.5 15.5 19.8 46.9 19.9 23.2 21.7 17.7 19.9 SFA *g* 2.7 2.1 3.9 6.3 3.7 4.1 2.7 2.8 4.4 MUFA *g* 13.6 12.5 13.9 36.7 15.2 17.0 17.7 14.0 14.5 PUFA *g* 1.2 0.9 2.0 4.0 0.9 2.1 1.3 0.9 1.0 Fiber *g* 2.6 4.8 3.8 3.4 2.6 4.1 4.0 3.6 4.8 Sodium *g* 1.3 1.1 0.9 0.9 1.8 1.4 1.5 1.2 1.5 Calcium *mg* 33.6 34.9 n.d. 168.1 92.7 83.1 28.9 21.9 58.7 Polyphenols *mg* 168 104 24 263 206 334 211 109 299

Natural black olives *Taggiasca* 

> 8.9 tr

Natural black olives *Peranzana* 

> 5.8 0.6

Natural black olives *Itrana* 

> 6.5 0.3

Natural green olives *Itrana* 

> 5.0 0.6

Natural black olives *Cellina N.*

> 7.2 1.7

egg and finally in breadcrumbs. The final product is intended for frying.

the nutritional composition is related to 100g of edible portion (e.p.) (Table 2).

Castelvetrano green olives *Nocellara B.* 

> 3.6 0.4

**Table 3.** Nutritional characteristics of some Italian table olives. n.d. = not detected; tr = traces.

The protein content is low (1.0-2.2 g; Table 3), but nutritional quality is high for the presence of essential amino acids for adults, threonine, valine, leucine, isoleucine, phenylalanine and lysine (Young, 1994*),* and for childrens*,* arginine, histidine and tyrosine *(*Imura & Okada,

**3. Nutritional and nutraceutical characterization** 

activity, accounts for 10-12.5 % of total calories.

Sevillan green olives *Bella di Cerignola*

> 2.5 <0.6

Sevillan green olives *Intosso*

> 2.8 tr

Nutrients/ 100g e.p.

Carbohydrates *g* Sugars *g*
