Influence of brine concentration on sugar and sodium chloride diffusion during the processing of the green olive variety Arauco

Abstract

The green olive variety Arauco were debittered using lye concentrations of, 2.50% NaOH.They were then subjected to two rinsing processes with tap water. Next, the olives were cured with brines at 7%, 10% and 13% sodium chloride concentration. During this curing process, the loss of reducing sugars from the olives, and the diffusion of sodium chloride into the olives were quantified. Effective diffusion coefficients of both solutes in the skin and the flesh were calculated for this period using a diffusion model for a composite hollow sphere. The skin effective diffusion coefficients for both solutes ranged from entre 8,27x10-14- m2/s to 4,04x10-13 m2/s. The flesh coefficients varied from 2,92x10-9 m2/s to 3,99x10-9 m2/s for sodium chloride and from 9,76x10-11 m2/s to 2,22x10-10 m2/s for reducing sugars.

Keywords

• debittering
• diffusion
• green olives
• reducing sugars
• sodium chloride