Researchers Investigate Olive Powder as Food Ingredient

Freeze-drying may hold the answer to recovering value from the discarded fruit in table olive production.

The production of dried olive powder has long been proposed to reduce waste in the table olive industry.

However, drying methods have been associated with poorer nutritional profiles. New research suggests that freeze-drying can yield products with significantly higher phenolic content.

According to the International Olive Council, more than three million kilograms of table olives were produced globally during the 2022-23 crop year, and production levels continue to rise.

As a result of this production, more than 150,000kilograms of waste is generated, approximately three to five percent of which comprises olives that fail to meet quality standards due to their size, visual defects or mechanical damage.

Although a great deal of progress has been made in recent years in transforming olive waste into products such as biofuel, building insulation and even supercapacitors, these applications are derived from olive pits.

Despite their high nutritional value, the edible discards are generally disposed of as fertilizer or animal feed.

A new study published in the journal LWT explores the potential of using table olive industry discards as a raw material for creating table olive powder with nutritionally significant levels of substances such as oleic acid, fiber, vitamins and phenolic compounds.

By converting fruit waste into powder, the authors hope to enhance sustainability and reduce waste in the industry.

The researchers studied two types of discards, green pitted olives and anchovy-stuffed olives, provided by a Spanish table olive producer. More