ABSTRACT
Most commercial preparations of table olives require a salt solution, brine, for storage or for fermentation. Brines have different characteristics, depending on the type of olives and on processing conditions. Strategies to prevent pollution from brines can be diverse, depending on the type of table olive because the processing conditions differ significantly from one type to another. The brine used in the final packing of naturally black ripe olives is not required to have special conditions of color, transparency. So, if the fruit is sweet enough, the fermentation brine can be reused in the final packing almost without treatment. The high volume and polluting loads of fermentation brines of green, Spanish-style table olives are of great concern in Spain. The fermentation brines contribute a small part of the total volume of wastewaters produced in a packing factory. The main troubles found during the regeneration of brines with active charcoal were related to the relatively unspecific action of the adsorbent.
