Olive Treatment - RoviesOlives

The olive is bitter when harvested from the tree, therefore the processing methods that we use, aim at rendering the olives non bitter and edible through fermentation.

The basic processing methods are the following:

1) The most widespread method is the Spanish (Spanish style) (Treated olives), which is based on the immersion of green olives in a 2% solution of caustic soda (NaOH) (lye) for about 12 hours. Then the liquid is removed as waste and another two washings with water take place, to remove most of the NaOH. So for every kilo of olives about 2.5 kilos of waste water are produced. These are produced every year in September and October.
About 99% of the green olives marketed in the world, are processed with the above method.
This method is not allowed to be applied to green organic olives because the use of caustic soda is not permitted by the EU Organic regulation 834.

2) Then we have the so-called Greek method (Greek style) (Natural olives). This method is based on the use of natural brine, where the olives ferment for about 8 months. With this method are processed mainly the Greek natural black olives and Kalamata olives, ie olives darken naturally on the olive tree, as they ripen and harvested from the tree after November the 15th. With this method we have no waste at all. With this method we also process the Organic Green olives.

3) Olives darkened by oxidation (Californian Style), are mainly green olives immersed in various alkaline solutions (again caustic soda: NaOH- lye) and oxidized with the use of air and the addition- at the end- of ferrous gluconate to make the olive shine. These olives are sold in tightly closed containers and sterilized at 120 degrees Celsius. Obviously we can't prepare Organic olives by this method. Finally, this method produces about 5 kilos of waste water for every kilo of olives.

4) Dehydrated or Shrivelled natural black olives, these olives are picked from the tree when fully ripe and are dehydrated between layers of dry salt, a process that takes more than two months, the most natural way of dehydration is when the olives reach full ripeness on the tree and become shrivelled.

See.”Elaboration of table olives”

(http://digital.csic.es/bitstream/10261/2453/1/Elaboration.pdf)