Therefore, an olive cultivar with a high
phenol value could negatively affect the starter inoculated in order
to drive the fermentation. The phenol content of Nocellara del
Belice olives seemed not to influence the starter behaviour,
because after only one month of fermentation the lowest pH was
reached with values of 4.68 and 4.78 in brines of inoculated and
control, respectively (data not shown). Otherwise, Nocellara Messinese
and Carolea showed a worrying pH value from 5.76 to 6.51
after 30 days of fermentation, which decreased rapidly up to
60 days, but without further appreciable lowering and always
higher than the 4.6 value. In particular, Carolea samples, which
showed the highest phenol amount, do not seem affected by the
inoculated starter because no differences in pH were registered
between inoculated and control olives. It should be underlined that
only Cassanese and Nocellara del Belice inoculated samples