New strategies for controlling table olives fermentation in Egypt

Egypt is the most important producer and consumer Country of table olives in the world. Within MARSADEV Project, a survey on table olives commercial products collected in the Northwestern region of Matrouh Governorate in Egypt was performed. Low safety conditions were observed in these products. Some of them are affected by the occurrence of high counts of Pseudomonas, Staphylococci and Enterobacteriaceae and some of them by the presence of biogenic amines. All tested samples resulted very poor in compounds related to microbial activities, such as organic acids and olives-derived phenols. Also, from the organoleptic point of view, odour profiles of tested olives are very modest. Scarce hygienic conditions were registered within domestic or small industrial plants along the whole production chain: from the harvest, to the processing and to the table olives packaging and storage. Several operations, such as the use of microbial starters, the monitoring of the fermentation process, together with some operational precautions, i.e. the heat treatment of water before olive soaking and the use of gloves during all operations, have been proposed to improve the process safety. The use of selected yeasts as starter for table olives production and the control of physical-chemical parameters during fermentation allowed to control the process, to sensitively improve organoleptic and safety traits of table olives, to reduce time required to end the transformation process from 8 to 2 months. Guidelines suggesting good practices and describing the most important operational steps to be followed for table olives processing have been produced for Bedouin rural communities living in this area, in particular for women within the concerned communities.