Horticulturae (Apr 2023)
Comparing Spanish-Style and Natural Fermentation Methods to Valorise Carolea, Nocellara Messinese and Leccino as Table Olives
Abstract
This paper presents the results of the transformation into table olives of drupes belonging to three Italian cultivars: Carolea, Leccino and Nocellara Messinese, widely used for virgin olive oil production, by using the two most common methods to produce fermented table olives: the Spanish-style method (SS) and the natural fermentation (NF). The most suitable drupes as table olives due to their flesh-to-pit ratio and high-weight fruits were Nocellara Messinese olives. From the results obtained, it was highlighted that fermentation must be improved by using a selected starter culture that can drive the fermentation by rapid acidification. In fact, the long time required by NF results in a lower pH close to the hygienic safety limit but not low enough to be considered as a stable product, while the fast fermentation obtained by treating the olives with lye solution resulted in pH values that were too high. The sugar content in all table olives was almost null, and the sensory evaluation showed that SS olives were less bitter than NF olives. Moreover, NF olive-flesh samples showed a higher amount of healthy phenolic compounds than SS olives, whose phenolic content was drastically affected by the alkaline treatment and the successive washing steps.
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