Olive Oil and Table Olives

Abstract

Olive orchards shape the Mediterranean landscape. Cultivars with larger fruits and lower oil content are selected to produce table olives, whereas cultivars with smaller fruit and higher oil content are selected for olive oil production. Olive oil is thus obtained by gently squeezing a fruit at the environmental temperature, as opposed to most edible oils, which are extracted from seeds through more elaborate processes that generally involve refining. The final composition of a seed oil is mainly a mixture of fatty acids (despite a few reports of seed oils containing reduced amounts of hydrophobic beneficial compounds). On the other hand, virgin olive oil is always a complex mixture of lipids and different proportions of a wide variety of compounds, including vitamins, flavonoids, simple phenols, chlorophylls, squalene and others. Olive oil is the main dietary fat in the Mediterranean diet, and some of its well-proven effects are substantiated in a health claim from the European Food Safety Authority regarding cardiovascular health. As olives are not edible when they are just harvested, many preparation methods exist to obtain and preserve table olives. The most widely distributed and best studied is the Sevillian style, which uses fruits harvested at their maximum size, albeit still green. Olives are debittered and fermented, mostly by lactic acid bacteria, among which some probiotic strains can be found. Olives are a good source of vitamins, a wide variety of phenolic compounds, some oil and dietary fibres. To ensure preservation, the levels of salt are quite significant; consequently, olives should be eaten in moderate portions as appetizers, or the level of salt should be reduced accordingly if included in cooked dishes.