Chemical and Sensorial Characteristics of Olive Oil Produced from the Lebanese Olive Variety ‘Baladi’

How storage time affects sensory, chemical, and physical characteristics of flavored olive oil

The objectives of this study were to evaluate sensory, chemical, and physical characteristics of olive oil prepared by three flavoring methods and analyze changes during storage (0, 3, and 6 months). Favored olive oil was prepared by three flavoring methods (fresh, dried, and essential oil). Selected sensory, chemical, and color parameters were monitored based on international standards. The color was determined by spectrophotometer. The results confirmed that storage time and flavoring method affect sensory characteristics of the oil. Fresh garlic oil had significantly lower (p < .05) fruity smell. The level of pungent taste significantly increased (p < .05) in the dried rosemary oil, rosemary essential oil, and fresh and dried garlic flavored oils. The intensity of rosemary smell in the sample flavored with essential oil significantly decreased (p < .05) during storage. Opposite effect was observed in the sample flavored with dried rosemary, where the smell significantly increased (p < .05) during storage. The intensity of taste significantly increased (p < .05) in samples flavored by dried rosemary during storage. The peroxide value of all flavored oils samples increased (p < .05) during storage compared to unflavored oil where peroxide value did not change. Color indicators L*, a*, and b* show that addition of fresh rosemary causes the greatest change in olive oil color. The color change, especially the turbidity, was not perceived positive by tasters.

Fatty Acid and Phenolic Profiles of Virgin Olive Oils from Local and European Varieties Planted in Lebanon

In Lebanon, olive oil is an integral part of its history and culinary traditions. However, the quality of this product, originating from different growing regions of the country, is rarely addressed. The objectives of this study were to compare the fatty acids and phenolic profiles of virgin olive oils produced from two local and eight European varieties, and to use these profiles as a tool for their characterization. Seventy-six samples were collected from two olive-growing regions of Lebanon and at two harvesting times. Fatty acid composition was determined by gas chromatography with a flame ionization detector, total phenols was determined by spectrophotometry and individual phenols by high performance liquid chromatography with diode array detector. All samples were also analyzed using near infrared spectroscopy. The experimental data were collected in numerical matrices and treated by chemometric methods. The results showed the significant effect of the geographical origin, the olive variety and the harvesting time on the ripening and industrial yield of the olives and on the major fatty acids and phenols of olive oil. Moreover, the used chemometric methods allowed the discrimination of European olive varieties based on their high contents of oleic acid, oleacein and oleocanthal.

Olive Yield and Physicochemical Properties of Olives and Oil in Response to Nutrient Application under Rainfed Conditions

The effects of mineral fertilizers on the physicochemical properties of olives and oil under rainfed conditions is scarce. In this three-year study, the results of a nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K) and boron (B) fertilization trial carried out in a young rainfed olive grove and arranged as a nutrient omission trial are reported. The control consisted of the application of N, P, K and B (NPKB) and four other treatments corresponded to the removal of one of them (N0, P0, K0 and B0). Olive yield and several variables associated with the physicochemical properties of olives and oil were evaluated. The NPKB treatment increased olive yield compared to the treatment that did not receive N (N0). Although dependent on the climate conditions of the crop season, the NPKB treatment increased fruit weight and the pulp/pit ratio and its fruits tended to accumulate more oil than K0. However, the phenolics concentrations on fruits and oil tended to be lower. All olive oil samples were classified in the "extra virgin" category and all showed a decrease in its stability between 3 and 15 months of storage, regardless of treatment, especially in N0, P0 and B0 treatments. The results of the sensorial analysis indicate that all the oils fell into the medium fruitiness and greenly-fruity category. Only in P0 and B0 were defects detected, namely muddy sediment. Thus, this study seems to indicate the importance of N application, but also a balanced nutrient application and that further studies are needed, given the difficulty in finding clear trends in the response of measured variables to fertilizer treatments.

Smart Greenhouse Based on ANN and IOT

The effective exploitation of smart technology in applications helps farmers make better decisions without increasing costs. Agricultural Research Centers (ARCs) are continually updating and producing new datasets from applied research, so the smart model should dynamically address all surrounding agricultural variables and improve its expertise from all available datasets. This research concentrates on sustainable agriculture using Adaptive Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs). Therefore, if a new related dataset is created, this new incoming dataset is merged with the existing dataset. The proposed PSO then bypasses the summarization of the dataset. It deletes the least essential and speculative records and keeps the records that are the most influential in the classification process. The summarized dataset is interposed in the training process without re-establishing the system again by modifying the classical ANN. The proposed ANN comprises an adaptive input layer and an adaptive output layer to handle the process of continuously updating the datasets. A comparative study between the proposed adaptive PSO-ANN and other known and used methods on different datasets has been applied. The results prove the quality of the proposed Adaptive PSO-ANN from various standard measurements. The proposed PSO-ANN achieved an accuracy of 94.8%, precision of 91.15%, recall of 97.93%, and F1-score of 94.42%. The smart olive cultivation case study is accomplished with the proposed adaptive PSO-ANN and technological tools from the Internet of Things (IoT). The advanced tools from IoT technology are established and analyzed to control all the required procedures of olive cultivation. This case study addresses the necessary fertilizers and irrigation water to adapt to the changes in climate. Empirical results show that smart olive cultivation using the proposed adaptive PSO-ANN and IoT has high quality and efficiency. The quality and efficiency are measured by diversified metrics such as crop production and consumed water, which confirm the success of the proposed smart olive agriculture method.

Drivers of coffee liking: Effect of physicochemical characteristics and aromatic profile on consumers' acceptability of mono-origin and mono-variety coffees

Few studies have investigated at the same time how physicochemical, volatile, and sensory characteristics affect coffee liking. The aim of this study is to evaluate the influence of geographical origin and variety on physicochemical parameters and volatile compounds composition of mono-origin and mono-variety coffees. Check-all-that-apply (CATA) method was used with the aim of identifying the drivers of coffee liking. Moisture content, bulk density, solubility index, color parameters, and phenols and caffeine content were useful parameters for discriminating Robusta from Arabica variety, but not samples from different origins. The hierarchical cluster and principal component analyses performed on the headspace compositions showed a quite sharp ability to group the samples based on their variety. Based on CATA results, roasted attribute, related to the presence of pyrazines, was considered a positive driver of coffee liking unlike grassy and acidic attributes (associated to the presence of acids and aldehydes, respectively). Findings from this study can be a useful tool for coffee manufacturers for a winning market strategy, helping them in the choice of the most suitable raw materials and process conditions in order to produce a well-balanced beverage by enhancing all the possible positive drivers of acceptability and reducing the negative ones.

Effect of processing technology on chemical, sensory, and consumers' hedonic rating of seven olive oil varieties

This study established physicochemical and sensory characteristics of virgin olive oils (VOOs) and linked them to consumers’ liking using external preference mapping. We used five Tunisian and two foreign VOO varieties produced by two processing systems: discontinuous (sp) and continuous three‐phase decanter (3p). The samples were analyzed and evaluated by a panel of 274 consumers. The external preference mapping revealed five VOO clusters with a consumer preference scores rating from 40% to 65%. Consumers highly appreciated the foreign Coratina cultivar's olive oil; the main drivers being richness in polyphenols (markers of bitterness and pungency), mainly the oleuropein aglycone, and volatile compounds (markers of green fruity, green leaves, green apple, cut grassy almond, and bitterness), particularly the trans‐2‐hexenol. The Tunisian Chemlali (3p) oil was second highly preferred (scoring 55%). The positive drivers for olive oil preference (a profile of almond fruity green and low bitterness and pungency) are the richness in hexanal compounds. Arbequina (sp and 3p) and Chemlali (sp) were the least appreciated due to the fact that Arbequina VOO is not in the tradition of Tunisian consumers, whereas Chemchali VOO is a minor variety representing only 2% of olive oil production in Tunisia and consumed mostly in blends. The differentiation between the two processing systems depends on the variety of cultivar; consumers are able to identify the two processing system in the case of Chetoui, Leguim, and Chemchali.

Phenolic variability in fruit from the ‘Arbequina’ olive cultivar under Mediterranean and Subtropical climatic conditions

In the present work, we compared the phenol content and composition of fruit from the ‘Arbequina’ cultivar in four Mediterranean (in Andalucía, Southern Iberian Peninsula) and two Sub-Tropical (Canary Islands) locations throughout the harvest period. Two Mediterranean and two Sub-Tropical locations were maintained with drip irrigation, while the remaining two Mediterranean locations were in dry farming. Water availability and harvest date seemed to play more important roles than air temperature on the phenolic content and most of the studied components. The variability associated with location was a result of the high values observed in the two Mediterranean locations in dry farming, with respect to the other four maintained with drip irrigation. Few differences were found among the four drip-irrigated locations, despite the fact that two were Mediterranean and the other two Sub-Tropical. In addition, a sharp decrease was observed during the harvest period for phenolic content and most of the phenolic compounds.

1H NMR Spectroscopy to Characterize Italian Extra Virgin Olive Oil Blends, Using Statistical Models and Databases Based on Monocultivar Reference Oils

During the last few years, the global demand for extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) is increased. Olive oil represents a significant percentage of world fat consumption determining an important development of its market. In this context, the problems related to counterfeiting and product fraud is becoming extremely relevant. Thus, the quality and authenticity control of EVOOs is nowadays mandatory. In this study we focused on the use of 1H NMR technique associated with multivariate statistical analysis to characterize Italian EVOOs commercial blends. In particular, a specific database including 126 monocultivar EVOOs reference samples, was used to characterize a total of 241 Italian EVOOs blends over four consecutive harvesting years. Moreover, the effect of the minor components (phenolic compounds) on the qualitative characterization of blended EVOOs was also evaluated. The correlation analysis of classification scores obtained using two pairwise orthogonal partial least square-discriminant analysis models (built with major and combined major-minor components NMR data) revealed that both could be profitably used to generally classify the studied Coratina containing blends.

Oil Content, Fatty Acid and Phenolic Profiles of Some Olive Varieties Growing in Lebanon

Olive growing in Lebanon plays an important role at both a social and economic level. Nevertheless, the quality of olive oil produced in the country is rarely addressed. In this study, oil content, fatty acid, and phenolic profiles were studied along four different ripening stages for 11 varieties of olives, including two clones of the local variety “Baladi,” in addition to nine foreign varieties (“Ascolana Tenera,” “Bella di Cerignola,” “Itrana,” “Jabaa,” “Kalamata,” “Nabali,” “Salonenque,” “Sigoise,” and “Tanche”). Oil content was determined using the Soxhlet method and Abencor system. Fatty acid composition was determined using a GC-FID, total phenols using spectrophotometry, and the phenolic profile using HPLC-DAD. Results showed that variety, fruit ripening and their interaction have a significant effect on the overall studied oil parameters. Among the studied varieties, “Kalamata” presented the higher oil content on dry matter (OCDM = 48.24%), “Baladi 1” the highest oil content on humid matter (OCHM = 27.86%), and “Tanche” the highest oil industrial yield (OIY = 19.44%). While “Tanche” recorded the highest C18:1 (71.75%), “Ascolana Tenera” showed the highest total phenols (TP = 539 mg GAE/Kg of oil), “Salonenque” the highest oleacein (121.57 mg/Kg), and “Itrana” the highest oleocanthal contents (317.68 mg/Kg). On the other hand, oil content together with C18:2 and C18:0 increased along ripening while C18:1, total phenols and the main individual phenols decreased. Although preliminary, this study highlights the good quality of olive oil produced from both local and foreign varieties growing in Lebanon and encourages further investigations on the characterization and authentication of Lebanese olive oil.

The Close Linkage between Nutrition and Environment through Biodiversity and Sustainability: Local Foods, Traditional Recipes, and Sustainable Diets

This special issue, “The Close Linkage between Nutrition and Environment through Biodiversity and Sustainability: Local Foods, Traditional Recipes, and Sustainable Diets” is focused on the close correlation between the potential benefits and “functional role” of a food and the territory, including papers on the characterization of local foods and traditional recipes, on the promotion of traditional dietary patterns and sustainable diets.