Implementation of Physicochemical and Sensory Analysis in Conjunction with Multivariate analysis towards Assessing Olive Oil Authentication/Adulteration

• Published in: Critical reviews in food science and nutrition Vol. 47; no. 5; pp. 441 - 498
• Main Authors: Arvanitoyannis, I.S, Vlachos, A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Colchester Taylor & Francis Group 01.01.2007; Taylor & Francis; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: adulterated products; adulteration; Analysis of Variance; Artificial intelligence; authentication; Biological and medical sciences; Chemical Phenomena; Chemicals; Chemistry, Physical; Cluster analysis; Conferences; Cultivars; Deoxyribonucleic acid; Discriminant analysis; DNA; DNA fingerprints; DNA polymerase; Expert systems; Fat industries; Fatty acids; Fatty Acids - analysis; Food Contamination - analysis; Food industries; food quality; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Fuzzy logic; General aspects; Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; Mass spectrometry; Mediterranean Region; Metals, Heavy - analysis; Methods; Methods of analysis, processing and quality control, regulation, standards; multivariate analysis; Neural networks; Nutrition; Olea - classification; Olive Oil; Phenols - analysis; physicochemical properties; Pigments, Biological - analysis; Plant Oils - analysis; Plant Oils - classification; Plants, Genetically Modified; Principal components analysis; product authenticity; Quality Control; seed oil; Sensation; sensory analysis; sensory evaluation; sensory properties; Trans fats; Volatilization; seed oil; Authentication; Quality control; Sensory analysis; Vegetable oil; Olive oil; Edible oil; Multivariate analysis; Adulteration; Implementation
• ISSN: 1040-8398; 1549-7852
• DOI: 10.1080/10408390600846325

The authenticity of products labeled as olive oils, and in particular as virgin olive oils, stands for a very important issue both in terms of its health and commercial aspects. In view of the continuously increasing interest in virgin olive oil therapeutic properties, the traditional methods of characterization and physical and sensory analysis were further enriched with more advanced and sophisticated methods such as HPLC-MS, HPLC-GC/C/IRMS, RPLC-GC, DEPT, and CSIA among others. The results of both traditional and "novel" methods were treated both by means of classical multivariate analysis (cluster, principal component, correspondence, canonical, and discriminant) and artificial intelligence methods showing that nowadays the adulteration of virgin olive oil with seed oil is detectable at very low percentages, sometimes even at less than 1%. Furthermore, the detection of geographical origin of olive oil is equally feasible and much more accurate in countries like Italy and Spain where databases of physical/chemical properties exist. However, this geographical origin classification can also be accomplished in the absence of such databases provided that an adequate number of oil samples are used and the parameters studied have "discriminating power."