Olive Oil (Royal Cultivar) from Mill Obtained by Short Time Malaxation and Early Ripening Stage

Abstract

The olive oil from the Royal cultivar has not been studied in depth, especially its relationship between analytical and sensory parameters. Currently, it is a minority cultivar, but due to its excellent organoleptic properties, it is constantly growing. The research objective is to obtain excellent-quality olive oil from the Royal cultivar at an industrial extraction plant and characterize the oil sensory and analytically. For this purpose, three important factors were set: very early olives; very low-time olive paste malaxation; and environmental temperature. The analytical parameters studied were volatile and phenolic compounds, fatty acids, photosynthetic pigments, and other quality parameters. Fourteen phenolic compounds were identified and found in significantly higher concentrations in Royal olive oil, including the oleacein compound. Moreover, volatile compounds from the LOX pathway, such as hexenal, (E)-2-hexenal, and (Z)-3-hexen-1-ol, had significantly higher concentrations, which were related to organoleptic characteristics: very fruity, not very spicy, and very low bitterness. The highest values obtained were 74.98% extraction efficiency at 30 min; 71.31 mg/kg chlorophyll content at 30 min; 156.38 mg/kg phenolic compound at 30 min; 18.98 mg/kg volatile compounds at 15 min; and better organoleptic characteristics at 15 min. The oil extraction efficiency was lower than that of other olive cultivars; nevertheless, the content of volatile compounds is higher.