A rapid screening method based on volatile compounds to support the sensory analysis of virgin olive oils

Innovative, rapid and environmentally friendly analytical methods are highly desirable in the quality control of the olive oils, thus a growing interest in their deep investigation exists. Despite many methods to assess VOO quality are available at international level, the need of supporting the organoleptic analysis was reported in the call H2020-SFS-14a-2014 and is one of the main objective of the OLEUM project. Specifically, the setting up of rapid instrumental methods could represent a solution for achieving a preliminary screening of a high number of samples and/or for supporting the sensory panels in the discrimination of boundaries samples. In this research, a set of 180 VOOs, sampled during the first year of the OLEUM project, was sensory assessed (EU Reg. 1227/2016) by 6 sensory panels, having different nationality and experience. The headspace volatile profiles of the same set were also analyzed by flash gas chromatography electronic nose (FGC E-nose). The chromatograms were elaborated by multivariate statistical analysis to develop a classification model able to predict the belonging of samples to a specific quality grade. This approach could reduce the daily work of sensory panels which will consequently increase the number and the efficiency of the controls. This work was developed in the context of the project OLEUM “Advanced solutions for assuring authenticity and quality of olive oil at global scale“ funded by the European Commission within the Horizon 2020 Programme (2014–2020, G.A no. 635690).