LAUSR

BACKGROUND Innovative technologies are experimentally applied to the virgin olive oil extraction process in order to make it continuous and more efficient. Most of the efforts aim at overcoming the limitations of the traditional malaxation step which, however, is essential for the development of virgin olive oil sensory notes. RESULTS Comparing to the traditional process, innovative technologies based on the heat exchanger brought generally to a decrement of volatile LOX-alcohols linked to the alcohol dehydrogenase activity and, on the contrary, to a slightly increase of volatile LOX-esters. Aldehydes from the same pathway were not significantly affected. However, an industrial combined plant constructed from a heat exchanger, low-frequency ultrasound device, and microwave apparatus determined the highest fruity intensity perceived by panellists, in accordance with the highest value of total volatiles, with values significantly higher than heat exchanger alone that, instead, had the lowest levels of hexanal and LOX alcohols. The pungent taste showed the same trend observed for fruity intensity while bitter taste not showed significant differences among trials. CONCLUSION The introduction of ultrasounds, coupled with heat exchanger and microwave, seemed to not modify the behaviour of the enzymes of the LOX pathway and the obtained virgin olive oils showed volatiles and organoleptic characteristics not significantly different from those obtained by traditional olive oil extraction process. These findings gave first insights about the effect of the combination of innovative technologies in the olive oil extraction process on VOO volatiles and sensory characteristics. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.