Technological Factors Affecting Sterols in Australian Olive Oils
2012
Guillaume, Claudia | Ravetti, Leandro | Ray, Debashree Lala | Johnson, Joshua
Sterols are important lipids related to the quality of olive oil and broadly used for checking its genuineness. Recent analyses have identified that some Australian olive oils would not meet international standards for total content of sterols or for certain individual components. Several research works indicate that there are some significant correlations between cultural and processing practices and sterols content and composition. In this work the horticultural and processing practices that may have an impact on the sterol content and profile of the most important Australian varieties were analysed. The information generated with this study aims to solve a legislation problem as well as maximising the nutritional and health benefits of Australian olive oils. The evaluation was undertaken using three different varieties and the processing practices evaluated were: irrigation, fruit size, maturity, malaxing time, malaxing temperature and delays between harvest and process. The total content of sterols and their composition in olive oil is strongly influenced by genetic factors and year. Processing practices particularly affect triterpene dialcohols and stigmasterol while horticultural practices and fruit characteristics tend to affect more significantly other sterols such as β-sitosterol, sitostanol, Δ5-avenasterol and Δ7-avenasterol.
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