Assessment of the Minor-Component Transformations in Fat during the Green Spanish-Style Table Olive Processing

There is an increasing interest of consumers for natural and healthy products. This work assesses the transformations that green Spanish-style processing of Manzanilla and Hojiblanca table olives produces on the minor components of their fat. Discriminant analysis showed that most of the variability was not due to processing (24.4%) but to differences between cultivars (59.2%). Therefore, the final products have a similar quality to the original olive fat; that is, the quality of the fat was scarcely affected. The only systematic trends observed were the decrease in hexacosanol, tetracosanol, and octacosanol (fatty alcohols) and C46 (wax), after lye treatment, and the high levels of alkyl esters in the packaged product. Thus, minor-component levels in green table olives are, in general, within the limits established for extra virgin olive oil since the alkyl esters should be considered habitual products of fermentation and not as an alteration as in olive oil.