Characterization of Olive Products from Greece—2nd Edition
A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Food Chemistry".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2026
Special Issue Editors
Interests: abiotic stress; fruit ripening; fruit tree physiology; functional fruits; multi-omics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: antioxidant activity; phenolic compounds; olive oil phenols; olive byproducts; olive leaves; radical scavenging; fats and oils oxidation; structure-antioxidant activity relationship; white wine oxidati
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Many projects are currently in progress for the molecular and metabolomic characterization of olive products in Greece. These include olive oil and table olives, but also olive drupes, leaves, and a wide range of olive-derived products and by-products (e.g., olive leaf flour, olive pomace powders, table olive processing discards, and fermented solid residues originating from olive mill wastewater treatment) using a wide array of analytical techniques. This is an overall enormous effort of different research groups to elucidate quality traits, authenticity, and compositional uniqueness of olive products from Greek-oriented cultivars and those that are currently cultivated in Greece, especially in the context of climatic changes.
The aims of all these efforts are as follows:
- To investigate environment- and climate-driven effects on the molecular composition and metabolomic profiles of Greek olive cultivars.
- To substantiate the authenticity and quality of Greek-originated olive products and establish various types of markers.
- To identify and quantify bioactive compounds in these products.
- To identify and quantify possible contaminants, including MHOs and PAHs.
- To explore innovative strategies for the valorization of olive-derived by-products or wastes and possibilities for developing new products with high added value.
Although olive oil is strictly regulated, it is acknowledged that there are still issues in the sector because fats and oils, including olive oils, are ranked third, after meat, fish, and their products, in the 2016 EU Food Fraud report on non-compliances per product category. For this reason, EU legislation continuously addresses emerging frauds, with research striving to develop faster, more efficient, and sustainable analytical methods that reduce solvent consumption.
Furthermore, developments and innovations in the determination and preservation of bioactive compounds in olive oil, table olives, and related matrices are of utmost importance for supporting health and nutritional claims beyond current regulations, while olive cultivar, maturity, processing, and storage, debittering techniques, and microbiome-driven biochemical transformations significantly influence product composition, quality, safety, and bioactive content. Moreover, the occurrence of process- and packaging-related contaminants, such as MOHs, PAHs, etc., represents an emerging quality and safety concern that requires robust molecular and analytical monitoring.
Considering the numerous advances made in recent years on the above topics, this Special Issue will highlight recent advances and explore both traditional and novel molecular, physicochemical, and metabolomics-based approaches for the characterization, authentication, and quality and safety assessment of Greek olive oil and table olives and related olive-derived products and by-products. Contributions examining the impact of environmental and climatic factors on molecular composition, as well as studies integrating microbiome and metabolomic data, are particularly welcome.
Scientists are warmly invited to submit their original contributions (reviews, commentaries, viewpoints, original research papers, and short communications) to this Special Issue, which will be of interest to a wide range of readers. In the cases of review articles, an additional, brief (1–2 pages) description of the topic, including a draft index, is required. This preliminary step is essential to avoid overlapping of topics.
Dr. Athanassios Molassiotis
Dr. Nenadis Nikolaos
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- olive cultivars
- climate change
- authenticity and quality
- bioactive compounds
- Greek olive products and by-products
- molecular and metabolomics techniques
- olive oil
- table olives
- food contaminants
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Related Special Issue
- Characterization of Olive Products from Greece in Molecules (13 articles)
