Determination of vegetable oils in olive oil mixtures using a stepwise strategy based on 1H-NMR fingerprinting and pattern recognition

ALONSO SALCES, ROSA MARIA; BERRUETA LUIS, ANGEL; QUINTANILLA-CASAS, BEATRIZ; VICHI, STEFANIA; TRES, ALBA; ASENSIO-REGALADO, CARLOS; VIACAVA, GABRIELA ELENA; POLIERO, AIMARÁ AYELEN; VALLI, ENRICO; BENDINI, ALESSANDRA; GALLINA TOSCHI, TULLIA; MARTÍNEZ-RIVAS, JOSÉ MANUEL; MOREDA, WENCESLAO; GALLO, BLANCA

RIVISTA ITALIANA DELLE SOSTANZE GRASSE

SERVIZI EDITORIALI ASSOC SRL

Año: 2021 vol. 98 p. 297 - 299

0035-6808

The high price of olive oil, its distinctive sensory profile and its reputation as a healthy source of dietary fats make olive oil a target for fraud. The most common types of olive oil fraud are illegal blending with other vegetable oils (VOs) or low-quality olive oils, deliberate mislabelling of less expensive classes of olive oils, other vegetable oils or their blends with olive oils, among others. Olive oil adulteration, being one of the biggest financial frauds in the agricultural sector, evidenced the need to update and harmonize analytical methods for quality and authenticity control of olive oil [1]. Oils of the ?virgin olive oil? (VOO) and ?olive oil? (OO) categories and their mixtures with the most common VOs, i.e. sunflower, high oleic sunflower, hazelnut, avocado, soybean, corn, refined palm olein and desterolized high oleic sunflower oils, were studied. A novel stepwise strategy based on the 1H-NMR fingerprint of edible oils and chemometrics is proposed in order to assure the authenticity and traceability of olive oils and their declared blends with VOs, as well as to detect fraud when olive oil is illegally blended with VOs or a ?legal? blend is falsely labelled respect to the botanical nature of the oils mixed and/or the percentage of each oil in the declared mixture.