EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL: PROCESSING, QUALITY, SAFETY, AUTHENTICITY, NUTRITIONAL AND HEALTH ASPECTS

Olive is one of the most ancient fruit tree species that is cultivated in the Mediterranean Basin, with great socioeconomic impact for the countries present in the area. Olive production throughout the world uses more than 1275 cultivars and 4200 genotypes. Most cultivars have been identified in southern European countries, including 538 in Italy, 183 in Spain, 88 in France and 52 in Greece. However, Greece has more cultivars than those described in the National Catalogue of Agricultural Plant Varieties, the majority of which remain unexploited.

Many studies have acknowledged olive oil as a healthy food with multiple utilities in, and benefits for, the human body. The consumption of extra virgin olive oil is steadily increasing due to its unique sensory, nutritive qualities, biological properties and health promoting effects.

In this review paper recent advances in quality, safety, authenticity, processing, nutrition and health of extra virgin olive oil have been discussed and outlined. Regarding safety HACCP and ISO22000:2018 is compared and different tools have been used along with food safety management systems such as FMEA, Ishikawa and Pareto.

Finally various health and oral health benefits were mentioned.