Survey of vitamin B(6) content in commercial presentations of table olives.

For nutritional purposes, a survey of the vitamin B(6) levels from a variety of commercial presentations of table olives was carried out, taking into account the three main processing types (Spanish-style, directly brined, and ripe olives). The analysis was performed by HPLC, following the official French method for vitamin B(6) determination in foodstuffs. In-house validation data for two commercial table olives showed that the method precision was good (coefficient of variation <6%) and recovery was quantitative (104% on average). There was a wide range of values for vitamin B(6) in table olives (0-69.3 microg/100 g edible portion). The highest mean content was found in directly brined olives (33.9 microg/100 g edible portion) followed by Spanish-style (14.4 microg/100 g) and ripe olives (4.3 microg/100 g). On average, samples of the Gordal and Carrasqueña cultivars showed the highest vitamin B(6) content in the case of Spanish-style olives, but in directly brined olives as well as in ripe olives the effect of cultivar was not statistically significant (p < 0.05).