1,721,095 research outputs found

    Gastronomic cultural EVOOlution of the virgin olive oil consumption model at the restaurant

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    Gastronomic experience can be a factor of motivation to improve the quality of extra virgin olive oil served at the restaurant. The “new” consumer is a very complex and demanding figure, who seeks in the consumption of food products not only a means to satisfy food needs, but experiences, emotions, feelings, service, nature, culture, etc. The quality requirements do not only concern the chemical-physical and organoleptic components of the product, but also the hedonostic ones, ie those related to the health aspects, the quality of the territory of origin, the typicality, the respect of the environment by the production processes used, respect for animal welfare, the ethical content of the product, etc. He is demanding in terms of information on the features of the product and requires greater guarantees on its characteristics and/or on the production processes used. All this seems to highlight the presence of potential unsatisfied needs around which it is possible to build paths of development of the offer able to satisfy them, especially at the restaurant, where cultural, emotional and multi-sensory satisfaction of food can be easily “discovered”. This is the right time to change the marketing of extra virgin olive oil at the restaurant, because extra virgin olive oil is an element that embodies the different aspects of the expected and perceptible quality of a food: taste, sensory, knowledge, sacredness, syncretism, health, history, naturalness and authenticity. Tasting a high quality oil, discovering the complexity of the aromas released by the contact with the warm dishes and the gustatory and kinesthetic perceptions that harmoniously interact by balancing the sensory profile of the other ingredients, is comparable to the emotion of a blind man when recovers his sight. From that moment, as the blind man will not be able to tolerate returning to the oblivion of darkness, the guests that tasted a high quality extra virgin olive oil can not tolerate returning to the banality of a fat that anoints without seasoning

    Industrial Ultrasound Applications in the Extra-Virgin Olive Oil Extraction Process: History, Approaches, and Key Questions

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    Taking an idea from a basic concept to a commercially available product is highly rewarding, but it can be a very long, complex, and difficult journey. Recognizing and understanding the stages of the process and using the right support to help you navigate through it can mean all the difference between success and failure. The road from concept to market is marred with obstacles, and many businesses fail to pass beyond the development stage. A better understanding of the innovation process is essential from the outset if the pioneers of innovation are to overcome the dangers that they are likely to face along the way and maximize their opportunities for success. In the olive oil sector, the most recent radical innovation is the introduction of ultrasound into the industrial extraction process. Many efforts have been made in order to overcome the Valley of Death. The strategy of designing, implementing, and testing an innovative system that combines the mechanical energy of ultrasound with the possibility of modulating the thermal exchange of olive paste (heating or cooling) has enabled the following: (1) Eliminating malaxation by realizing a real continuous process; (2) raising extraction yields by recovering a further quota of extra-virgin olive oil that is usually lost in the pomace; (3) improving the content of antioxidant molecules simultaneously with yields; and (4) offering a sustainable plant solution that can guarantee the right income for producers

    Special Issue “Innovations in the Food System: Exploring the Future of Food”

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    The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2018 provided a definition of “food systems” highlighting that they “encompass the entire range of actors and their interlinked value-adding activities involved in the production, aggregation, processing, distribution, consumption, and disposal of food products that originate from agriculture, forestry or fisheries, and food industries, and the broader economic, societal and natural environments in which they are embedded” [...
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