Industry 03
Table olives: curing and canning
Table olives are a living product: their quality is made over weeks of fermentation, then secured in a few minutes of heat treatment. We help olive canners control both.
Morocco is one of the world's leading exporters of table olives. Green, turning-colour or black, Spanish-style, Greek-style or ripe black olives: each style follows its own route of debittering, fermentation and preservation.
Our work covers fermentation and brine control, the safety of heat treatment, yield on pitting and packing lines, and brine wastewater, often the main environmental issue in the industry.
Key process steps
- 01
Receiving and grading
Lot checks (variety, ripeness, defects), washing, sizing.
- 02
Debittering
Lye treatment for Spanish-style green olives, or natural debittering in brine.
- 03
Brine fermentation
Lactic fermentation in tanks, monitoring salt, pH and free acidity.
- 04
Pitting and stuffing
Sorting, pitting, slicing, stuffing (pepper, garlic, lemon).
- 05
Jarring or canning
Filling, brine topping, seaming or capping.
- 06
Heat treatment
Pasteurisation or sterilisation depending on pH, cooling, labelling and palletising.
The challenges we see
- Poorly controlled fermentations: softening, gas pockets, spoilage
- Pasteurisation and sterilisation schedules that are not properly validated
- Losses and low yield at pitting
- Large volumes of brine and wash water to treat
How we help
- Fermentation and brine control plan
- Validation of thermal schedules and canned-food safety
- Yield and OEE improvement on packing lines
- Brine reduction and reuse, effluent treatment
- Readiness for customer audits and export (IFS, BRCGS)
Standards and frameworks
- Moroccan law 28-07 and ONSSA
- Codex standard for table olives (CXS 66-1981)
- IOC trade standard for table olives
- HACCP / ISO 22000 / FSSC 22000
- IFS Food, BRCGS
A project in this industry?
The first consultation is free. Tell us about your plant or project and we will get back to you within 48 hours.