{"id":5803,"date":"2025-02-09T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-08T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.oplatium.it\/la-produzione-di-olive-da-mensa"},"modified":"2026-05-23T17:09:30","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T16:09:30","slug":"la-produzione-di-olive-da-mensa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oplatium.it\/en\/la-produzione-di-olive-da-mensa","title":{"rendered":"Table olive production"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since ancient times, olive fruit<\/strong> have been highly important in the human diet: long before producing oil, our ancestors consumed olives<\/strong>, an excellent source of nutrition, relatively easy to obtain and store<\/strong>.
There is extensive historical and archaeological evidence<\/strong> on the subject are abundant. Consider the frequent references to olives in recipe books<\/strong> and in the advice of great authors of the past \u2013 to mention one \u2013 the great Roman agriculture expert Lucio Giunio Moderato Columella<\/strong> (1st century AD), who handed down recipes for preparing crushed and flavoured olives<\/strong> with many ingredients such as grape must, vinegar, fennel seeds and lentisk.<\/p>\n

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Table use of olives is so important that today olive varieties<\/strong> can be grouped into two main categories: oil varieties<\/strong> and table varieties<\/strong> (table olives).
To these is added the group of dual-purpose varieties<\/strong>, whose fruit, besides being used for oil, can also be processed and eaten as table olives<\/strong>, especially when the environment and growing techniques allow a suitable crop for the purpose<\/strong>, i.e. fruit that is healthy and adequately sized<\/strong>.
Table varieties are characterised by production of larger fruit<\/strong>, with a high flesh-to-pit ratio<\/strong> (i.e. plenty of flesh relative to the pit) and generally low oil content<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Characteristics of the fruit<\/h3>\n

The olive, the fruit of the olive tree, is called a drupe<\/strong> and consists of:<\/p>\n

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    a thin outer layer, the skin or epicarp<\/strong>,<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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    a fleshy central part, the flesh or mesocarp<\/strong>,<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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    and the stone or endocarp<\/strong>, the hard inner part.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    The olive has an elongated sub-ovoid<\/strong> shape that varies by variety (cultivar)<\/strong>. The drupe colour<\/strong> is initially green and, as it ripens, takes on shades from pink to purple to black, passing through an intermediate phase called veraison<\/strong>.
    Olives have a high fat content<\/strong>, which increases with ripening, and a very low carbohydrate content<\/strong>, lower than that of any other edible fruit.<\/p>\n\"\"<\/picture>\n

    Table olives in Lazio<\/h3>\n

    Table olives represent part of Italy’s olive history and culture<\/strong> and are an important production niche<\/strong> in our olive growing. In Lazio, this sector is growing<\/strong>, both in production capacity<\/strong> and processing<\/strong>.
    The main varieties in Lazio are:<\/p>\n

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      Itrana<\/strong>, widespread especially in the province of Latina<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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      Leccino<\/strong>, common in Sabina<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      Both are dual-purpose<\/strong>, suitable for both oil production<\/strong> and processing into table olives<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

      Classification and processing of table olives<\/h3>\n

      Once processed, table varieties are distinguished by:<\/p>\n

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        the good taste and aroma of the fruit<\/strong>,<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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        a high percentage of flesh<\/strong>,<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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        firm flesh consistency<\/strong> (in green olives),<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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        and not soft in black olives<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        The aim of processing is to remove bitterness from olives<\/strong>, making them ready to eat<\/strong> and suitable for keeping<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

        Table olives are classified into four types:<\/p>\n

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          Green olives<\/strong>: fruit picked while still green<\/strong>, colour from green to straw yellow.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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          Turning-colour olives<\/strong>: pink-wine or brown<\/strong> fruit, picked during veraison<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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          Black olives<\/strong>: very ripe<\/strong> fruit.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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          Black olives by oxidation<\/strong>: green fruit darkened<\/strong> by oxidation<\/strong> and debittered by alkaline treatment<\/strong>. They are kept in brine<\/strong> and preserved<\/strong> by sterilisation or other safe methods.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

          “Gaeta al naturale” method<\/h3>\n

          One of the most widely used methods in Lazio is the “Gaeta al naturale” method<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

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            the fruit, once picked, is placed in containers<\/strong> with water and salt<\/strong> for several months,<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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            without preservatives or additives<\/strong>,<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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            until complete debittering<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

            The result is an olive with high nutritional value<\/strong>, rich in polyphenols<\/strong> and natural antioxidants<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

            Since ancient times, olive fruit have been highly important in the human diet: long before producing oil, our ancestors consumed olives, an excellent source of nutrition, relatively easy to obtain…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4406,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_fp_seo_title":"Table olive production | OP Latium","_fp_seo_meta_description":"How table olives are produced: varieties, harvesting and quality in Lazio olive growing.","_fp_seo_focus_keyword":"table olive production","_fp_seo_meta_canonical":"","_fp_seo_meta_robots":"","_fp_seo_geo_claims":"","_fp_seo_geo_expose":"","_fp_seo_geo_no_ai_reuse":"","_yoast_wpseo_title":"Table olive production | OP Latium","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"How table olives are produced: varieties, harvesting and quality in Lazio olive growing.","_yoast_wpseo_focuskw":"table olive production","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-title":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-description":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-image":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-title":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-description":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-image":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_product_cat":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":""},"categories":[74],"tags":[390,419,420,421,422,423,424,425,426,427,428,429,430,431,432,433,434,435,436,437,438,439,440,441,442,443],"class_list":["post-5803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-en","tag-lazio-en","tag-olivo-en","tag-olive-da-mensa-en","tag-olive-da-tavola-en","tag-trasformazione-olive-en","tag-varieta-di-olivo-en","tag-olive-itrana-en","tag-olive-leccino-en","tag-olive-del-lazio-en","tag-olive-italiane-en","tag-drupa-en","tag-invaiatura-en","tag-classificazione-olive-en","tag-olive-verdi-en","tag-olive-nere-en","tag-olive-cangianti-en","tag-metodo-gaeta-en","tag-deamarizzazione-en","tag-coltivazione-olivo-en","tag-storia-dellolivo-en","tag-columella-en","tag-frutti-dellolivo-en","tag-agricoltura-romana-en","tag-polifenoli-en","tag-antiossidanti-naturali-en","tag-olivicoltura-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oplatium.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oplatium.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oplatium.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oplatium.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oplatium.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.oplatium.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oplatium.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oplatium.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oplatium.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oplatium.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}