Cracked green table olive from the south of Portugal: the influence of diferent...

• Author(s): Rodrigues, Neusa ; Cavaco, Teresa ; Quintas, Célia
• Date: 2010
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.1/3021
• Origin: Sapientia - Universidade do Algarve
• Subject(s): Brines; Cracked table olives; Enterobacteriaceae; Fermentation; Yeasts
• Document Type: Part of book or chapter of book
• Language: English
• Editor(s): Nunes, Carla

Description

Proceedings of the International Conference “Environmentally friendly and safe technologies for quality of fruit and vegetables”, held in Universidade do Algarve, Faro, Portugal, on January 14-16, 2009. This Conference was a join activity with COST Action 924. In the south of Portugal, cracked green olives represent a traditional way of processing table olives. After harvesting and sorting, the olives are washed, broken and immediately brined (Process A) or submitted to various washing steps with water prior to brining (Process B). The objective of this work was to study the effect of different processing treatments on the evolution of microbiological and physicochemical parameters during the fermentation of cracked green olives at a homemade scale and at different temperatures (25 ºC, room temperature and 18 ºC). Yeasts were found to be the dominant group in fermented cracked green table olives. Process A originated brines without countable Enterobacteria, with higher free acidity and higher phenolic content, when compared to brines resulting from Process B, suggesting that cracking and brining them straight away, represent a preferable way of processing olives which may guarantee the safety of the final product.