Volatile compounds of sliced high quality (Montanera) dry-cured Iberian shoulder subjected to high pressure processing and/or with an active packaging of olive leaf extract

Abstract An olive leaf extract based-active packaging (AP), high pressure processing (HPP) (600 MPa for 7 min) and its combination (AP + HPP) were researched to evaluate their effect on the volatile compounds of sliced dry-cured Montanera Iberian shoulders during refrigerated storage (day 1, 50, 100 and 150). AP, HPP and AP + HPP slightly decreased the levels of the volatile compounds, AP + HPP having a slightly strongest effect. Therefore AP (alone or combined with HPP) was not effective to preserve the volatile compound profile of the samples from the changes typically induced by HPP. In contrast to previous studies on ordinary Iberian products, the effect of HPP on Montanera samples was modest, which could indicate that it could not cause a considerable loss in aroma quality. Conversely, the storage increased the total volatile compound content more than twofold, neither AP nor HPP being effective for preventing the increase.