OLIVE OIL FLAVOURED WITH BRAZILIAN PINK PEPPER (SHINUS TEREBINTHIFOLIUS RADDI): AN AROMA MIGRATION STUDY

Flavoured olive oils are an important new product to be implement in food industry in this modern world, not only because is a new flavour perspective, but also can be representing as a new source of bioactive (antioxidant) components that could be responsible for reducing the oxidation process. The approach of this research was to evaluate differences in olive oils aromatization processes (conventional maceration - CM and ultrasound-assisted aromatization - UM) with Schinus therebinthifolius known as pink pepper fruit and their influence on quality parameters and volatile organic compounds of the olive oil aromatised. In CM it was performed 7, 15, and 30 days of maceration with the temperature of 25 °C. And for the UM it was employed a frequency of 25 kHz with 70% of amplitude in sweep mode with temperatures of de 35 °C for 36 min. Treatments were evaluated in relation to quality parameters (total titratable acidity (TTA), peroxide value, and extinction coefficients). Also, fatty acid profile (FA), volatile organic compounds, antioxidant activities and time of induction of oxidation were determined. The results demonstrated that flavouring reduced the peroxide value, but increased the TTA and altered the extinction coefficients. The fatty acid profile was not significantly altered, showing oleic acid as the major compound in the pink pepper fatty acid profile. The volatile compounds profile changed with treatments and an increase in terpenes occurred. These same terpenes were observed in pink pepper (PP) headspace. Oxygenated monoterpenes migration was observed only in olive oil flavoured by UM in comparison with the CM. All flavoured olive oil presented higher oxidative stability, and UM olive oil highlighted by a higher antioxidant activity. These findings proved that the aromatisation process assisted by ultrasound could be one alternative to increase the olive oil quality, creating a new and competitive flavoured product.