Isolation and identification of lactic acid bacteria throughout spontaneous fermentation of table olives produced by the sodium bicarbonate debittering method

Table olives gain their unique taste and aroma as a result of fermentation, which is applied together with a debittering process. In this study, Domat green and Gemlik black olives, which are very common Turkish cultivars, were used for table olive production and debittering was carried out with sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3). Fermentation was monitored for pH, titratable acidity, reducing sugar, total phenol content and microbiological analyses over a 120-day fermentation period. Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) were identified by API 50 CHL and the effect of NaHCO3 on the LAB profile was evaluated. It was determined that there were 3 LAB species, namely: Lactobacillus plantarum (6 isolates, 12%), Lactobacillus pentosus (27 isolate, 54%) and Lactococcus mesenteroides ssp. mesenteroides (17 isolates, 34%). Most of the isolates identified as Lactobacillus were identified as L. pentosus. L. plantarum species was isolated only from green table olives and was not found in isolates from black table olive samples.