Flavour quality critical production steps from fruit to extra-virgin olive oil at consumption

- Identification of critical production steps for virgin olive oil.
- Application of statistical process control and HACCP to olive oil production.
- Description of how volatile and phenolic compounds are altered at critical points.
- New insights on the effect of fruit characteristics on biophenols.
- New insights on the effect of extraction conditions and storage of olive oil on volatiles.

The production of olive oil comprises a number of production steps where the quality of the oil may be controlled through an understanding of how the production step influences key compounds such as volatiles and biophenols. In this study, critical production steps and significant inter-relationships between isolated production steps from fruit to oil-at-consumption were identified with the application of multivariate statistics. Having identified the key steps and relationships, sensory attributes associated with volatile and compounds may be enhanced and maintained during production and through to consumption. Our study showed that flavour compounds (e.g. oleuropein and derivates) could be controlled through olive fruit properties whereas transfer of the best sensory attributes from the fruit (e.g. arising from C5 and C6 volatiles) was critically controlled during oil extraction. Once olive oil was produced, maintenance of quality was critically controlled through storage conditions. Consequently, quality attributes from phenolic and volatile compounds could be targeted for maximum transfer from the olive fruit to oil while taking into account the impact on aroma, bitterness, and pungency of fresh oils and the subsequent loss in flavour quality during storage and consumption.