title: Physico-chemical characterization of natural fermentation process of Conservolea and Kalamàta table olives and developement of a protocol for the pre-selection of fermentation starters.
abstract: Table olives are one of the most important traditional fermented vegetables in Europe and their world consumption is constantly increasing. Conservolea and Kalamàta are the most important table olives Greek varieties. In the Greek system, the final product is obtained by spontaneous fermentations, without any chemical debittering treatment. This natural fermentation process is not predictable and strongly influenced by the physical-chemical conditions and by the presence of microorganisms contaminating the olives. Natural fermentations of Conservolea and Kalamàta cultivars black olives were studied in order to determine microbiological, biochemical and chemical evolution during the process. Following the process conditions generally used by producers, in both cultivars, yeasts were detected throughout the fermentation, whereas lactic acid bacteria (LAB) appeared in the last staged of the process. A new optimized specific protocol was developed to select autochthonous yeast and LAB isolates that can be good candidates as starters. These microorganisms were pre-selected for their ability to adapt to model brines, to have beta-glucosidase activity, not to produce biogenic amines. Chemical compounds deriving by microbiological activities and associated to the three different phases (30, 90 and 180 days) of the fermentation process were identified and were proposed as chemical descriptors to follow the fermentation progress.
authors.affiliation: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto di Scienze delle Produzioni Alimentari, Unità Operativa di Lecce, Lecce, Italy. Electronic address: gianluca.bleve@ispa.cnr.it.
authors.forename: Gianluca
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bleve
authors.affiliation: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto di Scienze delle Produzioni Alimentari, Unità Operativa di Lecce, Lecce, Italy.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tufariello
authors.affiliation: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto di Scienze delle Produzioni Alimentari, Unità Operativa di Lecce, Lecce, Italy.
authors.forename: Miriana
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Durante
authors.affiliation: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto di Scienze delle Produzioni Alimentari, Unità Operativa di Lecce, Lecce, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Grieco
authors.affiliation: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto di Scienze delle Produzioni Alimentari, Unità Operativa di Lecce, Lecce, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesca Anna
authors.initials: FA
authors.lastname: Ramires
authors.affiliation: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto di Scienze delle Produzioni Alimentari, Unità Operativa di Lecce, Lecce, Italy.
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Mita
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Section of Food Chemistry, University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tasioula-Margari
authors.affiliation: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto di Scienze delle Produzioni Alimentari, Bari, Italy.
authors.forename: Antonio Francesco
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Logrieco
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000378:metabolism; D005285:Fermentation; D005516:Food Microbiology / Q000379:methods*; D031658:Olea / Q000737:chemistry / Q000382:microbiology*; D015003:Yeasts / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000378:metabolism
keywords: Fermentation; GC–MS analysis; Microorganism selection; Table olives