The olive oil industry gives place to vast amounts of residues and when discarded untreated directly to the environment, they present a major ecological issue. Although some of these residues are beginning to be managed to a certain extent, higher benefits should be obtained from these materials.

Polyphenols abundant in olive waste have been recognized as compounds of high added value but due to the lack of efficient methods of isolation; significant variations in quality of available extracts and lack of their chemical characterization, the possibilities of further investigation of their health related properties and utilization in the segment of functional foods or dietary supplements is very limited.

The major goals of this projects are:

1. to develop sustainable procedure for the extraction of polyphenols from olive waste by using unconventional extraction techniques such as ultratrasound- and microwave assisted extraction, alone or in combination with microencapsulation. That should provide significant advantages over the traditional extractions methods

2. to develop efficient drying procedure for obtaining crude olive pomace extracts (COPE) using contemporary methodological approaches with satisfactory physico-chemical properties, organoleptic characteristics and increased shelf-life.

3. to provide functional characterization of COPE using contemporary methodological approaches (bioavailability and absorption of active compounds from COPE, antioxidant activity in food model systems and biological activity) In addition to providing novel scientific knowledge and serve as the excellent starting point for further scientific investigations of particular biological activities, the results of this project have great potential to be further used by food- and pharmaceutical industry.

Also, in broader sense, obtained results will contribute to the meaningful management of olive mill waste resulting with both economical and ecological benefit in the future.