Regional Approaches to Extra Virgin Olive Oil Quality
Hot Topic Symposium presented at the 99th AOCS Annual Meeting & Expo
Tuesday, May 20, 2008, Seattle, Washington USA
This symposium included the latest research on the natural variations in the regional chemistry of olive oils from several regions of the world including Europe, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. Speakers examined how and why this chemistry varies from region to region and from existing chemical standards as well as considering the current testing of traded olive oils for authenticity. In addition, presenters examined new developments in chemically describing olive oil quality, particularly on a regional basis, as well as proposed new methods to assist with the authentication of olive oil. In particular, there was a keynote presentation on new methods from Europe the describe and authenticate olive oil in an attempt to more closely align such methods to the qualities that are important to consumers.
This Hot Topic Symposium was made possible in part through the generous support provided by the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC) of Australia.
Keynote Presentation—New Analytical Possibilities to Survey Quality and Identity of Olive Oils. Christian Gertz, Official Institute of Chemical Analysis, Germany.
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In the examination of foodstuffs such as olive oil, analytical procedures must always be performed at current levels of foodstuffs technology in order to protect consumer protection and confidence in good business practise. When analysis criteria and procedures are written into law the danger arises of possible distortion of the purpose of the analysis and numerous manipulations going undiscovered. The growing interest in the food safety requires simple, quick, inexpensive and efficient methods for the assessment of the traceability, authenticity and quality of foods. This is a question that is of particular interest to olive oil which has very complex aspects due to the large number of cultivars all over the world. The main target of screening analyses of fats and oils is to get a knowledge of its total composition. An analysis of the fatty acids may lead to a misidentification of the oil. It is also important to get information about the fatty acids distribution on glycerol triacylglycerols as the fatty acid profiles of some vegetable oils are too similar. Analysing triacylglycerols by LC is especially useful for verifying the presence of single triacylglycerols and analysing thermo-instable compounds. The European Regulation ECC 2568/91proposed to analyse the triacylglycerols by LC neglecting the advantages of GC over HPLC such as better separation efficiencies, reproducibility of retention data and availability of a simple and universal detector. The analysis of TAGs and FA delivers a set of measurements which is used to characterize the “pattern” of a sample. The Data of more than 2000 vegetable oils were processed by principal component analysis (PCA) to obtain a small number of those variables which contribute most to the variation between the pattern vectors whereas the remaining variables, which convey little extra information, can be rejected. This simple method can be used to identify vegetable oils and detect blends. The method was also been applied to differentiate the geographical origins of olive oils. The international standard for the organoleptic assessment of olive oils should help to classify olive oils. But, the sensory test requires a high degree of specialized knowledge and a group of 8 skilled testers. Furthermore, in the non-producing countries no or only a small number of sensory panels are available to carry out perform sensory test. Therefore, many researches have been performed studying the relationship between chemical quality criteria and the organoleptic grading. More than 1000 samples of authentic virgin olive oils from different areas in Europe and Northern Africa were analysed. The K232 and K270 values, the determination of the pyropheophytins and diacylglycerol-isomers were determined for a large number of more than 1000 samples to collect qualitative and quantitive information about the oxidation process during storage. A good correlation with the sensory test result was found for the 1,2-diacylglycerol content. The pyropheophytin content helps to detect thermally treated olive oils and to estimate the age of the oil.
Southern Hemisphere Olive Oil: Culture, Climate and Chemistry. Leandro Ravetti, Modern Olives, Australia.
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Olive Oil Chemistry in Argentina. Amalia Carelli (1), Martha Melgarejo (2), (1) PLAPIQUI (UNS-CONICET), Argentina; (2) Argentinian Association for Fats and Oils, Argentina.
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Olive Oil Chemistry in Australia: Analysis and Quality Parameters. Rod Mailer, Australian Oils Research Laboratory, Australia.
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Surveillance and Analysis of Olive Oil in Canada. Angela Santagati, Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Canada.
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Geographical Traceability of Olive Oils by Major and Minor Compounds. Diego Garcia Gonzalez, Institute de la Grasa, Spain.
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Sensory Panel Analysis of Quality Defects and Quality Update. Florence Lacoste, Institute for Fats and Oils, France.
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Olive Oil Standards in the USA. Alan Greene, Californian Olive Oil Council, USA.
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Timothy Mounts Award: The Australian Olive Industry. Rod Mailer, Australian Oils Research Laboratory, Australia.
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