Abstract

Geographical origin assessment of extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) is recognised worldwide as raising consumers’ awareness of product authenticity and the need to protect top-quality products. The need for geographical origin assessment is also related to mandatory legislation and/or the obligations of true labelling in some countries. Nevertheless, official methods for such specific authentication of EVOOs are still missing. Among the analytical techniques useful for certification of geographical origin, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and mass spectroscopy (MS), combined with chemometrics, have been widely used. This review considers published works describing the use of these analytical methods, supported by statistical protocols such as multivariate analysis (MVA), for EVOO origin assessment. The research has shown that some specific countries, generally corresponding to the main worldwide producers, are more interested than others in origin assessment and certification. Some specific producers such as Italian EVOO producers may have been focused on this area because of consumers’ interest and/or intrinsic economical value, as testified also by the national concern on the topic. Both NMR- and MS-based approaches represent a mature field where a general validation method for EVOOs geographic origin assessment could be established as a reference recognised procedure.

Highlights

  • Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) is a high-value product due to its excellent nutritional properties and organoleptic characteristics, which are appreciated for their positive effect on human health

  • It is an important part of the Mediterranean diet due to the beneficial effects related to fat composition [1,2,3,4], which includes monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, and saturated fatty acids, mainly in the form of esters with glycerol, which represent more than 98% of the total olive oil content [5]

  • Characterization and certification of product origin are of importance, especially with the continual increase in the number of EVOO-producing countries and the attention placed on this product worldwide

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Summary

Introduction

Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) is a high-value product due to its excellent nutritional properties and organoleptic characteristics, which are appreciated for their positive effect on human health. Usually observed according to EVOO cultivars and/or geographical origin, can be used for prediction purposes and traceability assessment This technique requires an easy sample preparation (without the need for preliminary separations), quickly providing a complete metabolic profile of the analysed matrix, including olive oil [47]. In addition to high precision and a remarkable degree of reproducibility, NMR profiling provides a vast number of data in a single analysis [48] This analytical technique, associated with MVA, allows tailor-made databases to be obtained [7] for EVOO sample discrimination according to cultivar and/or geographical origin [49,50]. 75.5 MHz 600 MHz 75.5 MHz 400, 500 MHz 75.5 MHz 600 MHz 600 MHz 600, 150.9 MHz 150.9 MHz 125.7 MHz 125.7 MHz 600 MHz 500 MHz 600 MHz 600, 62.9 MHz 500, 202 MHz

12 Italian Regions
Both GC and LC-MS
Isotope Ratio MS
Elemental Profiling MS
Chemometrics
Methods
Findings
General Remarks

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