Chemometrical and molecular methods in olive oil analysis: A review

Abstract

Foods based on Olea europaea are of substantial importance for Mediterranean people. The association between olive products with great civilizations emphasizes the role that played the olive tree products and especially the olive oil. This generated the need for authentication, quality control and traceability of olive products. The physicochemical and sensory analysis methods, both classical (discrimination, ordination, classification) and novel (artificial neural networks, fuzzy logic, expert systems, decision trees, support vector machines) supplemented with molecular marker techniques (SSR, AFLP, RAPD), generated the need for effective multivariate analytical methods. These mathematically complex methods are greatly needed in the detection of adulterations of oil products and particularly for olive oil. The lack of mathematical symbolism and jargon is believed to make the text attractive to all potential workers in the field and help them improve the already low level of adulterations and augment the quality control databases for Mediterranean olive products. Practical applications In this review, multivariate methods applied until now in chemometrics supplemented with molecular methods of olive-based products were presented. Data processing in chemometris and molecular methods is an important issue in order to examine, explain, and evaluate such priorities of olive oil-based products. This review will facilitate researches to select the best suitable statistic model or equation regarding their hypothesis and use the most appropriate method in order to improve the low level of adulterations and augment in the quality control databases for Mediterranean olive products.