There are as many varieties of olives as moments and ways of consume them.
During the elaboration process of the olives, there can be common phases and other ones that vary depending on the variety of the olive produced; marinated olives, stuffed olives, green ones, black ones, etc…
Quimidroga offers to the olive sector the ingredients and additives necessary for each phase of the production process.
Conditioning of the fruit
The harvesting of the fruit is followed by the conditioning of the olive in alkaline medium to remove the bitterness of the oleuropein. This alkalinisation is done with sodium hydroxide.
Oxidised black olives
Black olives are subject to oxidation with air bubbling and ferrous gluconate and/or ferrous lactate to fix the black colour.
Stuffed olives
The stuffing for olives needs both organoleptic and technological characteristics to obtain a quality product.
First of all it needs the consistency of thermally stable gel to prevent it from melting and falling out of the olive during the pasteurization. This is achieved by using sodium alginate together with calcium salts (calcium chloride, calcium lactate, etc…) necessary to the solidification into gel of the alginate.
We also use guar gum to increase the viscosity of the stuffing paste.
Finally, some products increasing and enhancing the flavour are added to the stuffing such as aromas, monosodium glutamate or TasteNrich HI 20 (clean label).
Preservation
Olives of any kind are preserved into brine. This contains preservatives to avoid fungi and yeast growth on the surface of the brine (sodium benzoate or potassium sorbate) and organic acids to adjust the brine pH (lactic acid, citric acid or acetic acid).