Quality Indices, Phenolic Compounds and Sensory Evaluation of Flavored Olive Oil (original) (raw)

had soaked dried vegetables and herbs in locally squeezed olive oil to keep them from degradation reactions. Flavored oils can also be obtained in many ways: as adding whole spices, ground spices, essential oils or oleoresin oils, or prepared and filtered oil/vinegar 15. In the Mediterranean there are some alternative practices for steeping, including adding flavoring ingredients directly into the mill as the olives are being pressed and getting the oil to get a flavored product right away, particularly with fresh lemons 1. Thus, flavored oil is obtained and consequently, it was used for pasta sauces, as a dip for bread, and salad dressing. Flavored oils had been used by all the peoples of the Mediterranean according to their traditional uses 7. So, the herbinfused olive oil was used on crunchy bread by Italians, while olive oil infused with black peppercorns, garlic, brandy and hot red peppers are used by Portuguese, and that infused with hot red peppers and herbs were used by Spanish. Recently, flavored olive oils have gained more attention. It prepared by soaking aromatic herbs in the oil so that the organoleptic properties and stability are modified. However, this process causes the extraction of undesirable Abstract: In this study, the effect of adding some aromatic plants (garlic, rosemary, thyme, and hot-red pepper) on the quality and organoleptic properties of flavored olive oil extracted from the olive fruits Maraqi variety are studied after adding aromatic plants at a concentration of 2%. Acidity, peroxide value, K232, K270, sensorial attributes, oxidative stability, and phenolic contents had been monitored. Also, phenolic compounds are identified in the flavored and unflavored olive oil samples. These results demonstrated that the aromatic plant had enhanced the flavored olive oil stability; the levels of addition of aromatic plants could be distinguished by the taster's sensory attributes of flavored olive oil. As the plan of the experiment includes process preparation and consumer preference, it is possible to apply the obtained results to the production of flavored olive oil. The producers will gain a new product with more added values due to the nutritional and antioxidant strength of the aromatic plants.