Processing of “Green ripe olives” with Spanish olive varieties

Abstract

Consumers are nowadays demanding a certain type of table olive with low acidity, a pH higher than 4.5 and yellow-green to yellow in colour. These are produced in the USA under the name “green ripe olives” and their sterilization is absolutely necessary. It was demonstrated in this work that the Spanish olive varieties Manzanilla and Hojiblanca can be elaborated as “green ripe olives” giving rise to a good quality product. However, it was also observed that after alkaline treatment the olives had to be thoroughly washed. A high volume of wash water was needed to neutralize olive flesh but also to eliminate certain compounds that gave rise to an undesirable odour in the final product as a consequence of the heat treatment. A rapid neutralization of olive flesh with CO2 was not enough to eliminate the off-odor. Likewise, the use of two alkaline treatments instead of only one did not improve the quality of the product. Therefore, it is considered necessary to study new alternative methods of preparing “green ripe olives” with less wash water volume and better organoleptic olive properties.