**Table Olive**

318 Olive Germplasm – The Olive Cultivation, Table Olive and Olive Oil Industry in Italy

and olive oil. Med Res Rev 2002; 22: 65-75.

Visioli F, Poli A, Galli C. Antioxidant and other biological activities of phenols from olives

**Chapter 15** 

© 2012 Romeo, licensee InTech. This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use,

distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2012 Romeo, licensee InTech. This is a paper distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

**Microbiological Aspects of Table Olives** 

Table olives are the most important fermented vegetables because of their worldwide economic importance. The three main techniques for table olive production used in Italy concern 82% green olives, 16% black olives and 2% processed at the cherry ripened stage (UNAPROL, 2008). There are three main trade preparations of table olives: Spanish-style olives, Californian-style olives and naturally black or turning colour olives (Garrido-Fernández et al., 1997). The Spanish processing method includes treatment with sodium hydroxide solution, washing, brining, fermentation and packaging. The Greek-style method is milder and includes washing, natural fermentation in brine, air-oxidation for colour improvement, and packing. The Californian method includes lye treatment, washing, ironsalt treatment and air-oxidation, canning and heat treatment. This last method includes a final sterilization, so it is usually considered as a more safe production. Besides these most prominent preparations, there are many other traditional table olive elaboration recipes that are less known in the international market (Panagou et al., 2003) but very relevant at local

market level, where they are frequently sold in in glass jars or plastic pouches.

In the South of Italy the main traditional process method for table olive production is the natural olive process, according which untreated, generally green, olives are washed, put into containers and then filled with freshly prepared brine. Both treated and natural (untreated) olives have to fermented, and in order to enhance their safety extent, the current practice requires the reduction of pH to a value of 4.5 or below. The fruits are maintained in the brine until they lose their natural bitterness, at least partially (Arroyo-López et al., 2008a), and where they undergo the fermentation process whose characteristics depend on the cultivar and on the applied conditions. At the end of the process the olives acquired

Olives contain a significant amount of oil, ranging from 12% to 30%, depending on the considered cultivar. The fermentable carbohydrates of flesh olives generally ranges from 2% to 6%, however, when the olives are washed or lye treated sugars are also lost along with

Flora Valeria Romeo

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/51479

typical characteristics of final products.

**1. Introduction** 

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter
