Chemical, sensory, and chemiometric analysis of Italian and Spain virgin olive oils

Virgin olive oil (VOO) is usually characterised by peculiar pleasant sensory notes, contributing to differentiate it from other edible oils. Sensory taste, together with the nutritional aspects, are the main reasons of the increment in the VOO consumption observed in last years. Sensory analysis is required by olive oil official regulations to classify the product. The first aim of this work was to evaluate the inter-panel reproducibility of the sensory method by analysing by 16 samples of VOOs, produced in Italy and Spain (8 from Italy and 8 from Spain). The sensory analyses were carried out by different panels located in Italy and Spain. The second aim of this research was the study of the correlations between sensory and chemical parameters, in particular volatile compounds were related with olfactive, and phenolic compounds with gustative notes. For this aim volatile compounds were separated, identified and quantified, starting from the oil samples, by solid phase micro-extraction and capillary gas chromatographic analysis with mass spectrometry detector (SPME/CGC-MSD). Similarly, the phenolic profile was carried out by high-performance liquid chromatography with diode array and mass spectrometry detectors (HPLC-DAD-MSD)