Olives picked off the tree contain a very bitter compound called oleuropein. Harvested olives must be “cured” to remove the bitterness in order to make them palatable.
Are olives edible off the branch? While olives are edible straight from the tree, they are intensely bitter. Olives contain oleuropein and phenolic compounds, which must be removed or, at least, reduced to make the olive palatable.
Olives are inedible before they are cured. Many people don't know that olives are actually inedible when they are first picked. Raw olives straight from the tree contain oleuropein, an extremely bitter compound that makes olives completely unpalatable. This is why, for many years, olives weren't eaten at all!
Olives are harvested both by-hand and mechanically. Harvested olives may be milled to make oil or cured for food production. Olives cannot be consumed direct from the tree; they are too bitter without curing. The raw fruit is bursting with oleuropein, a bitter compound that must be removed prior to eating.
When eaten raw, olives are extremely bitter and, for all intents and purposes, completely inedible. Not only is the texture completely different from what you'll find after they've been processed (they're more mealy and mushy), they also contain a substance called oleuropein that makes them bitter.
According to the American Chemical Society (ACS), fresh olives contain an overwhelmingly bitter compound called oleuropein. This substance renders the stone fruit "absolutely disgusting" when eaten raw. While fresh olives are generally considered to be inedible, consuming one raw won't actually cause any harm.
The birds roost in the trees during the night, and that's precisely when the olives are harvested. Olives apparently taste better when harvested at night because the cooler temperatures allow for better retention of aromatic compounds.
Foods which contain the clostridium botulinum bacteria
These include canned foods which have not been properly preserved, packaged or vacuum packed foods, meat and seafood. In most cases it occurs due to foods which have not been adequately preserved or stored in cans. Examples (canned) include: Olives.
Any change in appearance or smell is bad news. For example, if the olives smell kind of funky, or start to look shriveled or discolored, you should bid them adieu.
Though black olives provide many health benefits, they are relatively high in sodium and calories. A 100-gram serving of ripe olives provides 115 calories and about 735 milligrams of sodium. It's important to limit sodium intake because increased salt consumption is associated with higher levels of blood pressure.
Olives are a strange food: a fruit that you can't buy fresh, just swimming in salty brine. Why? They contain a bitter chemical called oleuropein. This week on Reactions, we're talking about the science of how we can eat this unique stone fruit.
It's easy to forget that olives are a fermented food, but that also means they're rich in Lactobacillus, a kind of gut-friendly bacteria. Antonio Bevilacqua, PhD, a microbiologist at the University of Foggia in Italy, says he has isolated some probiotic strains from the fruits and used them in olives and other foods.
To keep your saturated fat intake within the recommended guidelines, it's best to limit your intake to 2–3 ounces (56–84 grams) — about 16–24 small- to medium-sized olives — per day.
Many olives have an enzyme called catechol oxidase that causes them to change from a green to a red-brown to a black, but some just stay green or black. But at all of these stages, they are too bitter though not toxic to eat, because of a chemical called oleuropein, which also has anti-microbial properties.
A bad batch of olives
Per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the cells of Clostridium botulinum thrive in low-oxygen environments, making improperly canned food the perfect breeding ground. Botulism causes a variety of symptoms due to muscle paralysis, which if left untreated can result in death.
While an olive fruit or olive oil allergy is rare, it's possible. You're more likely to have an allergic reaction to olive tree pollen than from the fruit itself. If you develop a food allergy to olives, it's best to avoid the fruit. Those particularly sensitive to olives may also be allergic to olive oil.
To reduce saltiness, you can soak the olives in water overnight before eating them out-of-hand. After this soaking you can also place the olives in a little olive oil. The olive oil may congeal in the refrigerator, so before serving allow the olives to sit at room temperature until the oil has liquefied.
Green olives, which are young, immature olives, can be cured in water, which removes the bitter taste of the raw fruit. They will have a fresh, nutty flavor and firm texture. After a week or so of water curing, they are stored in a pickling brine, which adds a salty flavor.
Do jars and tubs of olives need to be refrigerated after the container is opened? The company said no, if they are handled correctly. That means if the olives are kept submerged in their brine and kept out of heat and direct sunlight, they will last up to six months at room temperature.
You seal the jar, and what's inside? “That's a perfect cultural medium for botulism,” Taylor says. In 1919, olive-related botulism outbreaks started killing people. In August, 14 people got sick after a dinner party at a country club near Canton, Ohio.
The lye that penetrated through the olive to cure it will have reacted with the acids in the olive. The extra lye from the curing solution gets rinsed off of them after the olives are cured and then the olives usually get soaked in brine to finish the cure and to store them.
Most olives are ready to harvest when the juice turns cloudy, at the “green ripe” stage in late September. They ripen to an uneven reddish-brown through November, finally darkening to the “naturally black ripe” stage by early December. Olives in this stage have a high oil content and are easily bruised.
You can make a simple brine solution using a ratio of 1 parts salt to 10 parts water. Use an unprocessed salt such as rock salt or sea salt. Cover the olives with the brine in a bucket, jar or container with a lid. Make sure the olives are again completely submerged.
After soaking olives in brine to get rid of the bitter taste, they soaked them in vinegar for a few hours and finally stored them in olive oil.