Evaluation of enrichment with antioxidants from olive oil mill wastes in hydrophilic model system

Agro food industry generates significant amounts of by-products, as olive oil mill waste waters (OMWW), which could be valorize for their extraordinary content of bioactive compounds. The aim of this work was to evaluate the antioxidant stability of a hydrophilic model system with the possibility to create a functional beverage. The study was divided into different steps: extraction of phenolic compounds (PCs) from olive oil waste waters, formulation of enriched water fortified with phenolic extract (PE) (50 and 100 mg tyrosol/L), and evaluation of its physicochemical and antioxidant parameters during storage. Ultra-high performance liquid chromatography was used for the evaluation of single phenols present in the extract, and the highest content was observed for tyrosol (12.9 g/L). The results of this study showed that antioxidant capacity measured by diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl and ABTS assays is relatively stable during the storage in the samples enriched with lower concentration of PE (50 mg tyrosol/L). Practical applications The olive oil industry generates huge quantities of waste, with shown significant amounts of by-products that are discarded and can be a serious environmental problem. This food by-products are an extraordinary source of bioactive compounds, which can be recovered in order to produce valuable metabolites via chemical and biotechnological processes. The study demonstrated that the OMWW have a high concentration of PC and antioxidant activity. These antioxidant compounds can be used in the food industry for the production of beverages and/or enriched foods.