Ozone and Sanodyna® Treatments to Increase Safety and Sustainability in Extra Virgin Olive Oil Production Chain

The aim of this work is to assess the effectiveness of ozone and sanodyna® treatments in olive washing stage to reduce microbial load, water consumptions, and environmental impacts, safeguarding the extra virgin olive oil characteristics. With respect to ozonization treatments, 12 samples of olives were tested (six treated insufflating ozone and 6 (not treated) used as control). Three of the treated samples were processed to produce olive oil within 24 h, while the others three were processed after seven days. The same apply for the six untreated samples. In this case, the effect on olives microbiological load and on the quality of extra virgin olive oil were assessed. Sanodyna® was sprayed directly to olives (at 0.05%) and was also tested at three different concentrations (4, 8, 12%) in the olives washing water. Notably, the effects on the microbial load, on washing water characteristics, and on the obtained oil were assessed. The ozonization treatment did not reduce the olive’s microbial load. In addition, ozone had detrimental effects on the total phenolic content of the olive oil, highlighting its unsuitability to this application. The direct treatment with sanodyna® did not decrease the microbial load. On the other hand, the application of higher dosages in the washing stage showed promising results. In particular, sanodyna® treatments reduced the microbial load and extended the duration of washing water. In conclusion, despite the effects on the olive oils need to be evaluated, the latter application seems to be effective in reducing microbiological load and environmental impacts.