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Lab Test Would Define the Sensory Profile of Olive Oil by Analyzing Its Molecules

The goal is to add a laboratory analysis to the routine tests done by extra virgin olive oil tasting panels to confirm quality and determine organoleptic characteristics.
Microscopic image showing clusters of green and yellow bacterial cells on a dark background. - Olive Oil Times
By Paolo DeAndreis
Mar. 20, 2023 21:05 UTC
Summary Summary

Researchers in Italy are devel­op­ing a new sci­en­tific pro­ce­dure to iden­tify volatile com­pounds in extra vir­gin olive oil, aim­ing to enhance qual­ity con­fir­ma­tion and deter­mine organolep­tic char­ac­ter­is­tics. The new analy­sis tool, based on sci­en­tif­i­cally-sound tech­nol­ogy, could lead to improved label­ing, dif­fer­en­ti­a­tion of prod­ucts, and sup­port for extra vir­gin olive oil sales through var­i­ous chan­nels.

Researchers and olive oil pro­duc­ers in Italy are one step closer to com­plet­ing a new sci­en­tific pro­ce­dure for iden­ti­fy­ing the volatile com­pounds of extra vir­gin olive oil.

The goal is to add a lab­o­ra­tory analy­sis to the rou­tine tests done by extra vir­gin olive oil tast­ing pan­els to con­firm qual­ity and deter­mine organolep­tic char­ac­ter­is­tics.

One of the most rel­e­vant chal­lenges has been iden­ti­fy­ing how a spe­cific mol­e­cule was related to the organolep­tic feed­back and which mol­e­cules cor­re­sponded to a pos­i­tive attribute or a neg­a­tive one.- Anna Cane, pres­i­dent, Assitol’s olive oil group

The Italian Association of the Edible Oil Industry (Assitol) asked pro­duc­ers and lab­o­ra­to­ries across Italy to par­tic­i­pate in the last test­ing phase.

We are talk­ing about a new ana­lytic sys­tem capa­ble of eval­u­at­ing the sen­so­r­ial pro­file of extra vir­gin olive oil,” Anna Cane, pres­i­dent of Assitol’s olive oil group, told Olive Oil Times.

See Also:Researchers in Spain Investigate Positive Organoleptic Attributes of EVOO

According to cur­rent European Union reg­u­la­tions and International Olive Council stan­dards, eval­u­at­ing the qual­ity of extra vir­gin olive oil requires a panel test.

It is a method based on human abil­i­ties, as it requires at least eight expert tasters who fol­low an estab­lished pro­ce­dure,” Cane said. Their sen­so­r­ial organs con­sti­tute the equip­ment of the panel test analy­sis.”

The new analy­sis tool is based on sci­en­tif­i­cally-sound tech­nol­ogy,” she added. It allows us to extract the volatile com­pounds of extra vir­gin olive oil and iden­tify the spe­cific mol­e­cules, which come in hun­dreds.”

According to Assitol, the whole sec­tor would ben­e­fit from the new analy­sis pro­ce­dure once it is per­fected and trans­lated into a legal stan­dard. One of the advan­tages would be the abil­ity to ana­lyze a large num­ber of sam­ples from dif­fer­ent sup­pli­ers.

The new method might allow a first screen­ing of the sam­ples to exclude those that do not fit the desired pro­files quickly,” Cane said. It could greatly speed up the pro­ce­dures and sup­port the panel test oper­a­tions.”

Additionally, Assitol believes this approach would improve the infor­ma­tion given to con­sumers.

Today, we have lim­ited options to include sen­so­r­ial indi­ca­tions on extra vir­gin olive oil labels,” Cane said. We can only use fruity,’ bit­ter’ and piquant’ as they are those deter­mined by the sole legal ana­lytic sys­tem, the panel test.”

As many con­sumers are not yet aware of extra vir­gin olive oil organolep­tic qual­i­ties, most pro­duc­ers only use the attribute fruity” on their labels, shun­ning bit­ter” and piquant,” or pun­gency.

That means that extra vir­gin olive oils on sale are not suf­fi­ciently dif­fer­en­ti­ated,” Cane said. In the future, we could have an ana­lytic tool capa­ble of detect­ing herba­ceous, arti­choke, almond or many other pos­i­tive attrib­utes.”

That could even help develop a new reg­u­la­tion on extra vir­gin olive oil label­ing,” she added. To dis­play sen­so­r­ial attrib­utes on the label, today, those attrib­utes must have been cer­ti­fied by an ana­lytic sys­tem defined by law.”

The new labels could also sup­port extra vir­gin olive oil sales through dif­fer­ent chan­nels, includ­ing food ser­vice. Restaurants are the ambas­sadors of local qual­ity prod­ucts through­out the coun­try,” Cane said.

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Many restau­rants in Italy fea­ture dif­fer­ent wines expertly paired with each meal. Recently in Umbria, a maitre d’ spent 10 min­utes explain­ing to my friends and myself the beauty of a Riesling bot­tle of wine, so we ordered it,” Cane said. When I asked him for some extra vir­gin olive oil, he just put a bot­tle on the table.”

When we asked him to tell us some­thing about that extra vir­gin olive oil as he had done for the wine, he told us he did not know any­thing about it,” she added. That is an exam­ple of how much we need to reach a new level of com­mu­ni­ca­tion for extra vir­gin olive oil.”

Assitol empha­sized how pro­duc­ers could also deploy the new sys­tem to eval­u­ate olive oil blends along­side the panel test.

It could help eval­u­ate the pro­file of the blend a com­pany aims to bring onto the mar­ket and ver­ify that the prod­uct falls within the given stan­dard,” Cane said. “[It would be] a lab­o­ra­tory con­fir­ma­tion which comes on top of the panel test results.”

See Also:Researchers Develop Cheaper, More Effective NMR Techniques to Test Olive Oil

Cane also cited other poten­tial advan­tages of the new sys­tem, such as allow­ing a pro­ducer to ver­ify the sta­bil­ity of extra vir­gin olive oil over time.

It could prob­a­bly also be used to char­ac­ter­ize monocul­ti­var extra vir­gin olive oil,” she said. There are many oppor­tu­ni­ties related to this new method.”

Assitol ben­e­fited from a series of ear­lier aca­d­e­mic research when it started its task force focused on devel­op­ing the new method in 2018. However, only a few olive oil pro­duc­ers and experts par­tic­i­pated in the first test­ing phase.

One of the most rel­e­vant chal­lenges has been iden­ti­fy­ing how a spe­cific mol­e­cule was related to the organolep­tic feed­back and which mol­e­cules cor­re­sponded to a pos­i­tive attribute or a neg­a­tive one, a defect,” Cane said.

As a result of the ongo­ing sci­en­tific research and the com­ple­tion of the first test­ing phase, Assitol is now ask­ing the whole indus­try to join in the devel­op­ment efforts.

The new test­ing phase is seen as cru­cial to com­plete the new approach. In the new test­ing phase, we will be look­ing for a def­i­nite reli­a­bil­ity of the infor­ma­tion, a repro­ducibil­ity of the ana­lytic data and broad­en­ing the num­ber of involved lab­o­ra­to­ries,” Cane said.

For an ana­lytic sys­tem to be val­i­dated, it must com­ply with spe­cific repro­ducibil­ity require­ments.

The new method must be con­sid­ered an addi­tion to what we already have, which is the panel test,” Cane said. The panel test has been cru­cial in improv­ing the prod­ucts end­ing up on the shelves.”

In indus­tries such as wine, cof­fee, tea or choco­late, this ana­lytic approach based on volatile com­pounds has been stud­ied and detailed more than in the olive oil sec­tor,” she added.

That explains the rel­e­vance of this research, as it adds to the panel test, a legal con­trol method that other food sec­tors do not have at their dis­posal,” Cane con­tin­ued. The new approach strength­ens the panel test’s work.”

According to Cane, most of the machin­ery needed for the new analy­sis method is likely already avail­able in many lab­o­ra­to­ries. Besides the right equip­ment, though, you also need to have the trained tech­ni­cian oper­at­ing it,” she said.

The goals of the new method are sim­i­lar to the European Union’s Oleum project, which is also in its final stages of devel­op­ment.

The ana­lytic sys­tem is very sim­i­lar to Oleum,” Cane con­firmed. There is no com­pe­ti­tion to deter­mine which sys­tem is bet­ter. We all want the same result as soon as pos­si­ble; meth­ods required by the cur­rent needs of the olive oil mar­ket.”

And that means quick and reli­able con­trol and ver­i­fy­ing sys­tems, with repro­ducible results world­wide, sus­tain­able and inex­pen­sive,” she con­cluded.


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