Unmasking of Olive Oil Adulteration Via a Multi-Sensor Platform.

Marco Santonico,Francesca Parente,Giorgio Pennazza,Simone Grasso,Alessandro Zompanti,Francesco Genova

doi:10.3390/s150921660

Marco Santonico, Francesca Parente + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/s150921660

Copy DOI

Abstract

Methods for the chemical and sensorial evaluation of olive oil are frequently changed and tuned to oppose the increasingly sophisticated frauds. Although a plethora of promising alternatives has been developed, chromatographic techniques remain the more reliable yet, even at the expense of their related execution time and costs. In perspective of a continuous increment in the number of the analyses as a result of the global market, more rapid and effective methods to guarantee the safety of the olive oil trade are required. In this study, a novel artificial sensorial system, based on gas and liquid analysis, has been employed to deal with olive oil genuineness and authenticity issues. Despite these sensors having been widely used in the field of food science, the innovative electronic interface of the device is able to provide a higher reproducibility and sensitivity of the analysis. The multi-parametric platform demonstrated the capability to evaluate the organoleptic properties of extra-virgin olive oils as well as to highlight the presence of adulterants at blending concentrations usually not detectable through other methods.

Highlights

Olive oil is the most popular vegetable oil produced and consumed in Mediterranean countries.According to international standards [1], olive oils have to be obtained exclusively from the fruit of the olive tree (Olea europaea) using cold pressing techniques and in conditions that do not alter the organoleptic properties of the oil at all
Twelve Italian extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) having different geographical origin and olive variety compositions have been characterized through the BIONOTE system, performing five measuring cycles each
The obtained data set has been evaluated by Principal Component

Summary

Introduction

Olive oil is the most popular vegetable oil produced and consumed in Mediterranean countries.According to international standards [1], olive oils have to be obtained exclusively from the fruit of the olive tree (Olea europaea) using cold pressing techniques and in conditions that do not alter the organoleptic properties of the oil at all. Liquid and gas chromatographic techniques represent the elective methods for the authentication and characterization of individual olive oil compounds [11,12,13,14,15]. These analytic verifications require valuable instrumentation and highly-qualified staff. All of these features together make authentication a time consuming and expensive process which is not applicable as routine analysis. At the end of the analytical procedure, similarities and differences between the samples are highlighted In this multi-parametric study, the correct discrimination of twelve EVOOs made up of dissimilar olive cultivars and having different geographical origin has been achieved

Results

Discussion

Conclusion