Improvement of bioactive phenol content in virgin olive oil with an olive-vegetation water concentrate produced by membrane treatment

Olive-vegetation water (OVW) is very rich in phenols, which can cause pollution problems, due to their high hydrophilicity and antimicrobial activity. In this study, a three-phase membrane system was applied for the recovery of hydrophilic phenols from fresh OVW in an industrial plant, through a prior enzymatic treatment. This innovation yielded both a crude phenolic concentrate (CPC) and a very high reduction in OVW pollution. Furthermore, the CPC was utilised in a virgin olive oil (VOO) extraction process with the aim of improving VOO phenolic content. The results obtained with four different olive cultivars showed that the CPC extraction increased the phenolic content of the VOOs without any alteration of their aroma profiles.