OLEICAStarter SIGNED

Project "OLEICAStarter" data sheet

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 Project objective

Table olives are products from the cultivated olive tree (Olea europea L.), whose main production regions are in the Mediterranean Basin, specially Spain and Italy, Middle East, America and Australia. With a high variety of table olive processing methods, fermented varieties are common, with the Spanish-style table olives (SSTO) among the most consumed ones. Fermentation is beneficial for extending shelf-life and can also enhance nutritional properties in a safe and effective manner. However, SSTO producers need to improve the quality and safety of their products through a higher control and standardization of the fermentation process, which would also result in the reduction of economic losses produced by fermentation failures. The reference in the field of starter inoculum for SSTO fermentation, EPSA LAC, is technologically outdated, does not have probiotic properties and does not provide a standardized protocol to assure SSTO quality and reduce harmful fermentation failures. We have developed OLEICAStarter, a starter inoculum solution to produce the first probiotic SSTO. OLEICAStarter comprises: a) two biofilm-forming, olive-native lactic acid bacteria (LAB) strains for the fermentation of SSTO, b) a specifically optimized protocol for the adaptation, growth, maintenance and control of such LAB strains, and c) the standardized procedure to produce SSTO with OLEICAStarter. Our solution is protected by the Industrial secret 6808/2017 “Multifunctional bacterial inoculum from table olive biofilms, procedure for adaptation/growth/maintenance/control and their use in the Spanish-style table olive production”. OLEICAStarter will benefit end users by increasing their productivity (300%) and production quality and opening new market niches for their SSTO while benefiting environment and the society by reducing SSTO brine waste (from 8% to 4%) and bringing new non-dairy probiotics to market. Our company is expected revenues of €1.6 million after 3 years of sales.