Wastes and by-products of the olive oil supply chain: state of art of treatment technologies and eco-efficiency assessment tools

Due to its high environmental impacts, the agrifood sector is the subject of policy action for promoting environmental sustainability. Among the agrifood sector, olive oil production is one of the most important compart ments in which there is an increasing interest in the search for new strategies and technologies toward an ecological transition. This is because the olive oil supply chain generates a huge amount of waste and by-products that can cause several significant environmental impacts, if not properly man aged. Despite this, there is a lack of studies in the literature that deal si multaneously with both aspects related to the treatment technologies adopted and the evaluation of their eco-efficiency. Therefore, the present study aims to carry out an exploratory analysis of state of the art regarding the technologies and strategies used in the olive oil supply chain for the treatment of by-products and wastes, as well as the tools applied for assess ing their eco-efficiency, through a preliminary bibliometric analysis of the scientific literature. The results allow us to identify the trends related to the strategies employed in the olive oil sector from an environmental sustain ability and circular economy point of view.