Preprocessing storage conditions for green ‘Conservolea’ and ‘Chondrolia’ table olives

Abstract

Green olives (Olea europaea L. cvs. ‘Conservolea’ and ‘Chondrolia’ ), destined for Spanish-style processing, were harvested at the beginning and the end of commercial harvest period and stored at 5 and 7.5 °C in air or various controlled atmospheres. Olive quality was measured periodically and included mass loss, skin color, flesh firmness and chilling injury symptoms, mainly internal browning. Larger samples of ‘Conservolea’ olives were commercially processed with the Spanish method after storage for objective quality determination and taste panel evaluation. Mass loss of fresh olives during storage was generally low and no fruit decay was encountered. Fresh ‘Chondrolia’ green olives were very sensitive to chilling injury. They lost their capacity to develop skin color and ripen after 2–4 weeks of cold storage with excessive internal browning, resulting in pitting and external discoloration. Fresh ‘Conservolea’ green olives developed skin color, especially at 7.5 °C, and after storage in air, 2 or 5 kPa CO2. Fruit stored at 2 kPa O2 in the presence or not of high CO2 retained their green color for more than 2 months. ‘Conservolea’ olives slightly softened during storage but with longer storage, in parallel with chilling injury development, a rehardening of the fruit flesh was measured, possibly an additional chilling injury symptom. Storage at 5 °C and combinations of 2 kPa O2 and 2 or 5 kPa CO2 increased susceptibility to chilling injury, although fruit successfully retained skin green color. Objective and subjective quality evaluation of processed ‘Conservolea’ olives gave similar differences between treatments. Abnormal flavor seemed to be an additional result of chilling injury. In conclusion, ‘Conservolea’ green olives can be stored up to 37 days at 5 °C in air or for up to 22 days at 7.5 °C and 2 kPa O2 plus 5 kPa CO2.