Profiling versus fingerprinting analysis of sesquiterpene hydrocarbons for the geographical authentication of extra virgin olive oils

The verification of the geographical origin of extra virgin (EVOO) and virgin olive oil (VOO) is crucial to protect consumers from misleading information. Despite the large number of studies performed, specific markers are still not available. The present study aims to evaluate sesquiterpene hydrocarbons (SHs) as markers of EVOO geographical origin and to compare the discrimination efficiency of targeted profiling and fingerprinting approaches. A prospective study was carried out on 82 EVOOs from seven countries, analyzed by Headspace Solid Phase Microextraction-Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC-MS). Classification models were developed by Partial Least Square-Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA) and internally validated (leave 10%-out crossvalidation). The percentage of correct classification was higher for the fingerprinting (100%) than for the profiling approach (45.5–100%). These results confirm the suitability of SHs as EVOO geographical markers and establish the fingerprinting as the most efficient approach for the treatment of SH analytical data with this purpose up to date.