Visible and near-infrared absorption spectroscopy by an integrating sphere and optical fibers for quantifying and discriminating the adulteration of extra virgin olive oil from Tuscany

Because of its high price, extra virgin olive oil is frequently targeted for adulteration with lower quality oils. This paper presents an innovative optical technique capable of quantifying and discriminating the adulteration of extra virgin olive oil caused by lower-grade olive oils. An original set-up for diffuse-light absorption spectroscopy in the wide 400–1,700 nm spectral range was experimented. It made use of an integrating sphere containing the oil sample and of optical fibers for illumination and detection; it provided intrinsically scattering-free absorption spectroscopy measurements. This set-up was used to collect spectroscopic fingerprints of authentic extra virgin olive oils from the Italian Tuscany region, adulterated by different concentrations of olive-pomace oil, refined olive oil, deodorized olive oil, and refined olive-pomace oil. Then, a straightforward multivariate processing of spectroscopic data based on principal component analysis and linear discriminant analysis was applied which was successfully capable of predicting the fraction of adulterant in the mixture, and of discriminating its type. The results achieved by means of optical spectroscopy were compared with the analysis of fatty acids, which was carried out by standard gas chromatography.     

Synchronous fluorescence spectroscopy for quantitative determination of virgin olive oil adulteration with sunflower oil

Adulteration of extra virgin olive oil with sunflower oil is a major issue for the olive oil industry. In this paper, the potential of total synchronous fluorescence (TSyF) spectra to differentiate virgin olive oil from sunflower oil and synchronous fluorescence (SyF) spectra combined with multivariate analysis to assess the adulteration of virgin olive oil are demonstrated. TSyF spectra were acquired by varying the excitation wavelength in the region 270–720 nm and the wavelength interval (Δλ) in the region from 20 to 120 nm. TSyF contour plots for sunflower, in contrast to virgin olive oil, show a fluorescence region in the excitation wavelength range 325–385 nm. Fifteen different virgin olive oil samples were adulterated with sunflower oil at varying levels (0.5–95%) resulting in one hundred and thirty six mixtures. The partial least-squares regression model was used for quantification of the adulteration using wavelength intervals of 20 and 80 nm. This technique is useful for detection of sunflower oil in virgin olive oil at levels down to 3.4% (w/v) in just two and a half minutes using an 80-nm wavelength interval.     

Direct olive oil authentication: detection of adulteration of olive oil with hazelnut oil by direct coupling of headspace and mass spectrometry, and multivariate regression techniques

Control of adulteration of olive oil, together with authentication and contamination, is one of the main aspects in the quality control of olive oil. Adulteration with hazelnut oil is one of the most difficult to detect due to the similar composition of hazelnut and olive oils; both virgin olive oil and olive oil are subjected to that kind of adulteration. The main objective of this work was to develop an analytical method able to detect adulteration of virgin olive oils and olive oils with hazelnut oil by means of its analysis by a headspace autosampler directly coupled to a mass spectrometer used as detector (ChemSensor). As no chromatographic separation of the individual components of the samples exists, a global signal of the sample is obtained and employed for its characterization by means of chemometric techniques. Four different crude hazelnut oils from Turkey were employed for the development of the method. Multivariate regression techniques (partial least squares and principal components analysis) were applied to generate adequate regression models. Good values were obtained in both techniques for the parameters employed (standard errors of prediction (SEP) and prediction residual error sum of squares (PRESS)) to evaluate its goodness. With the proposed method, minimum adulteration levels of 7 and 15% can be detected in refined and virgin olive oils, respectively. Once validated, the method was applied to the detection of such adulteration in commercial olive oil and virgin olive oil samples.     

Analysis of olive oil and seed oil triglycerides by capillary gas chromatography as a tool for the detection of the adulteration of olive oil

Individual triglyceride (TG) species of olive oil and several seed oils (corn, cottonseed, palm, peanut, soybean, and sunflower) are baseline separated on a WCOT TAP CB fused-silica capillary column by capillary gas chromatography (CGC) with a flame-ionization detector (FID) and either cold on-column or split injection. An adulteration of olive oil with a low content (< 5%) of these seed oils (except peanut oil) can be verified by the detection of the increasing levels of trilinolein or tripalmitin in olive oil in which these TG species are normally absent or present at very low levels (< 0.5%). An adulteration with over 20% peanut oil can be detected by the increasing levels of palmitodilinolein. TG species that can be coeluted with trilinolein in the reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic (RP-HPLC) mode are baseline separated by the CGC technique, and their structures are identified by selective ion monitoring mass spectrometry. The following comparisons--the CGC-FID and RP-HPLC methods for detection of adulteration, cold on-column and split-injection modes for CGC-FID, and silylation or thin-layer chromatography pretreatment and simple dilution of one or more of the oil samples--are also presented. The normalized percentage area of the TG species is sufficient for the method limits used in this study. Mixtures of virgin olive oil with refined or residue olive oil could not be distinguished from the virgin type by the method used in this study.     

Rapid Authentication of Olive Oil by Raman Spectroscopy Using Principal Component Analysis

A method of principal component analysis was employed to authenticate genuine olive oil based on Raman spectroscopy, which can reliably distinguish olive oil from other types of oils and can also accurately identify the level of adulteration in a set of olive oil samples contaminated with 5% or more of other types of oils, such as soybean oil, rapeseed oil, sunflower seed oil, and corn oil. The method is very easy, effective, time-saving, and requires minimal sample preparation. Therefore, the method is a promising technique for the rapid authentication application of olive oil.

[Supplementary materials are available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of Analytical Letters for the following free supplemental resource(s): Additional text and table]     

The information content of visible spectra of extra virgin olive oil in the characterization of its origin

The information content of visible spectra has been evaluated, by means of some selected chemometrical techniques, for its ability to trace the geographical origin of extra virgin olive oils coming from several Mediterranean regions. Special attention was paid to extra virgin olive oil produced in West Liguria, a North Italy region which leans over the Mediterranean Sea and borders France. The peculiar organoleptic features of this "niche product" deserved the protected designation of origin "Riviera Ligure-Riviera dei fiori". Unfortunately, this expensive oil is often submitted to profitable adulterations, commonly involving addition of other cheaper Mediterranean oils. Using suitable transforms, such as profiles and derivatives, the visible spectra of extra virgin olive oils showed a very important discriminant power in that regards the geographical characterization of the studied samples. In particular, the developed class models for West Liguria oils have 100% sensitivity and specificity. Moreover, even if this paper is focused on West Liguria oil, it is important to emphasize that a similar study, involving a so widespread and timesaving technique, could be analogously developed for all the other Mediterranean regions taken into account and it could be used in other olive oil characterization problems.     

Preliminary study on application of mid infrared spectroscopy for the evaluation of the virgin olive oil "freshness"

The freshness of virgin olive oils (VOO) from typical cultivars of Garda regions was evaluated by attenuated total reflectance (ATR) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, in combination with multivariate analysis. The olive oil freshness decreased during storage mainly because of oxidation processes. In this research, 91 virgin olive oils were packaged in glass bottles and stored either in the light or in the dark at room temperature for different periods. The oils were analysed, before and after storage, using both chemical methods and spectroscopic technique.Classification strategies investigated were partial least square discriminant analysis (PLS-DA), linear discriminant analysis (LDA), and soft independent modelling of class analogy (SIMCA).The results show that ATR-MIR spectroscopy is an interesting technique compared with traditional chemical index in classifying olive oil samples stored in different conditions. In fact, the FTIR PCA results allowed a better discrimination among fresh and oxidized oils, than samples separation obtained by PCA applied to chemical data. Moreover, the results obtained by the different classification techniques (PLS-DA, LDA, SIMCA) evidenced the ability of FTIR spectra to evaluate the olive oil freshness. FTIR spectroscopy results are in agreement with classical methods. The spectroscopic technique could be applied for the prediction of VOOs freshness giving information related to chemical modifications. The great advantages of this technique, compared to chemical analysis, are related to rapidity, non-destructive characteristics and low cost per sample. In conclusion, ATR-MIR represents a reliable, cheap and fast classification tool able to assess the freshness of virgin olive oils.     

Sequential (step-by-step) detection,identification and quantitation of extra virgin olive oil adulteration by chemometric treatment of chromatographic profiles

An analytical method for the sequential detection, identification and quantitation of extra virgin olive oil adulteration with four edible vegetable oils--sunflower, corn, peanut and coconut oils--is proposed. The only data required for this method are the results obtained from an analysis of the lipid fraction by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. A total number of 566 samples (pure oils and samples of adulterated olive oil) were used to develop the chemometric models, which were designed to accomplish, step-by-step, the three aims of the method: to detect whether an olive oil sample is adulterated, to identify the type of adulterant used in the fraud, and to determine how much aldulterant is in the sample. Qualitative analysis was carried out via two chemometric approaches--soft independent modelling of class analogy (SIMCA) and K nearest neighbours (KNN)--both approaches exhibited prediction abilities that were always higher than 91% for adulterant detection and 88% for type of adulterant identification. Quantitative analysis was based on partial least squares regression (PLSR), which yielded R2 values of >0.90 for calibration and validation sets and thus made it possible to determine adulteration with excellent precision according to the Shenk criteria.     

Electronic nose based on metal oxide semiconductor sensors as a fast alternative for the detection of adulteration of virgin olive oils

An “electronic nose” has been used for the detection of adulterations of virgin olive oil. The system, comprising 12 metal oxide semiconductor sensors, was used to generate a pattern of the volatile compounds present in the samples. Prior to different supervised pattern recognition treatments, feature selection techniques were employed to choose a set of optimally discriminant variables. Linear discriminant analysis (LDA), quadratic discriminant analysis (QDA) and artificial neural networks (ANN) were applied. Excellent results were obtained in the differentiation of adulterated and non-adulterated olive oils and it was even possible to identify the type of oil used in the adulteration. Promising results were also obtained as regards quantification of the percentages of adulteration.     

Detection of refined olive oil adulteration with refined hazelnut oil by employing NMR spectroscopy and multivariate statistical analysis

NMR spectroscopy was employed for the detection of adulteration of refined olive oil with refined hazelnut oil. Fatty acids and iodine number were determined by ¹H NMR, whereas ³¹P NMR was used for the quantification of minor compounds including phenolic compounds, diacylglycerols, sterols, and free fatty acids (free acidity). Classification of the refined oils based on their fatty acids content and the concentration of their minor compounds was achieved by using the forward stepwise canonical discriminant analysis (CDA) and the classification binary trees (CBTs). Both methods provided good discrimination between the refined hazelnut and olive oils. Different admixtures of refined olive oils with refined hazelnut oils were prepared and analyzed by ¹H NMR and ³¹P NMR spectroscopy. Subsequent application of CDA to the NMR data allowed the detection of the presence of refined hazelnut oils in refined olive oils at percentages higher than 5%. Application of the non-linear classification method of the binary trees offered better possibilities of measuring adulteration of the refined olive oils at a lower limit of detection than that obtained by the CDA method.     

Comparative study of electrospray and photospray ionization sources coupled to quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometer for olive oil authentication

The use of fast and reliable analytical procedures for olive oil authentication is a priority demand due to its wide consumption and healthy benefits. Olive oil adulteration with other cheaper vegetable oils is a common practice that has to be detected and controlled. Rapid screening methods based on high resolution tandem mass spectrometry constitute today the option of choice due to sample handling simplicity and the elimination of the chromatographic step. The selection of the ionization source is critical and the comparison of their reliability necessary. The possibilities of the direct infusion electrospray ionization (ESI) and the recently introduced atmospheric pressure photospray ionization source (APPI), coupled to quadrupole time-of-flight (QqTOF), have been critically studied and compared to control olive oil adulteration. These techniques are very rapid (approximately 1 min per sample) and have high discrimination power to elucidate key components in the edible oils studied (olive, hazelnut, sunflower and corn). Nevertheless, both sources are complementary, being APPI more sensitive for monoacyl- and diacylglycerol fragment ions and ESI for triacylglycerols. In addition, methods reproducibility's are very high, especially for APPI source. Mixtures of olive oil with the others vegetable oils can be easily discriminated which has been tested by using principal components analysis (PCA) with both ESI-MS and APPI-MS spectra. Analogously, linear discriminant analysis (LDA) confirms methods reproducibility and detection of other oils used as adulterants, in particular hazelnut oil, which is especially difficult given its chemical similarity with olive oil.     

Novel solid-phase extraction method to separate 4-desmethyl-, 4-monomethyl-, and 4,4'-dimethylsterols in vegetable oils

Conventional methods for sterol fractions separation by TLC have some drawbacks such as low recovery and time consuming. A new solid-phase extraction (SPE) method was developed with stepwise elution by increasing the polarity of solvents mixture: n-hexane and diethyl ether. This method was applied to separate sterol fractions of hazelnut and virgin olive oils, and our results were compared with those of TLC method. The recovery of spiked authentic sample of 4-desmethylsterols in oil was higher with the SPE method (94%) compared with the TLC method (62%). The amount of 4,4'-dimethylsterols and 4-desmethylsterols separated with SPE in both hazelnut and virgin olive oil samples were at least 75% and 35%, respectively, higher than that of TLC. Generally, both methods obtained similar results for 4-monomethylsterols of the two oils. This new SPE method to separate phytosterol fractions was less time consuming, simpler and can be used instead of preparative TLC to detect adulteration of virgin olive oil with hazelnut oil.     

Determination of α-Tocopherol in Olive Oil by Solid-Phase Microextraction and Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry

Olive oil has great human health benefits and is an important component of the Mediterranean diet. Its quality, sensory attributes, and oxidative stability are linked to the presence of minor compounds. Vitamin E (α-tocopherol) is a key component in these properties. In this work, solid-phase microextraction coupled to gas chromatography–mass spectrometry was used for the determination of α-tocopherol in olive oil. The analytical performance of the method has been assessed in fortified olive oil with negligible vitamin E concentrations. The calibration curve was linear from 0.020 to 0.500?mg/g. The limits of detection and quantification were 0.006 and 0.021?mg/g, respectively. Intraday and interday relative standard deviations were 3.2 and 10.0, respectively, and were concentration independent. The method was used for the determination of α-tocopherol in virgin and extra virgin olive oil, reporting average concentrations of 0.044?±?0.03 and 0.200?±?0.05?mg/g, respectively. Overall, the method is simple, sensitive, rapid, and solvent free, and provided high recoveries of 97.7?±?3.1%. In addition, vitamin E stability in extra-virgin olive oil was characterized by a shelf-life study.     

Effects of conventional heating on the stability of major olive oil phenolic compounds by tandem mass spectrometry and isotope dilution assay

The quality of olive oils is sensorially tested by accurate and well established methods. It enables the classification of the pressed oils into the classes of extra virgin oil, virgin oil and lampant oil. Nonetheless, it would be convenient to have analytical methods for screening oils or supporting sensorial analysis using a reliable independent approach based on exploitation of mass spectrometric methodologies. A number of methods have been proposed to evaluate deficiencies of extra virgin olive oils resulting from inappropriate technological treatments, such as high or low temperature deodoration, and home cooking processes. The quality and nutraceutical value of extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) can be related to the antioxidant property of its phenolic compounds. Olive oil is a source of at least 30 phenolic compounds, such as oleuropein, oleocanthal, hydroxytyrosol, and tyrosol, all acting as strong antioxidants, radical scavengers and NSAI-like drugs. We now report the efficacy of MRM tandem mass spectrometry, assisted by the isotope dilution assay, in the evaluation of the thermal stability of selected active principles of extra virgin olive oil.     

Linear and non linear chemometric models to quantify the adulteration of extra virgin olive oil

Two mathematical methods to quantify adulterations of extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) with refined olive oil (ROO), refined olive-pomace oil (ROPO), sunflower (SO) or corn (CO) oils have been described here. These methods are linear and non linear models based on chaotic parameters (CPs, Lyapunov exponent, autocorrelation coefficients and two fractal dimensions) which were calculated from UV-vis scans (190-900 nm wavelength) of 817 adulterated EVOO samples. By an external validation process, linear and non linear integrated CPs/UV-vis models estimate concentrations of adulterant agents with a mean correlation coefficient (estimated versus real concentration of cheaper oil) greater than 0.80 and 0.97 and a mean square error less than 1% and 0.007%, respectively. In the light of the results shown in this paper, the adulteration of EVOO with ROO, ROPO, SO and CO can be suitably detected by only one chaotic parameter integrated on a radial basis network model.     

Independent components analysis coupled with 3D-front-face fluorescence spectroscopy to study the interaction between plastic food packaging and olive oil

Olive oil is one of the most valued sources of fats in the Mediterranean diet. Its storage was generally done using glass or metallic packaging materials. Nowadays, plastic packaging has gained worldwide spread for the storage of olive oil. However, plastics are not inert and interaction phenomena may occur between packaging materials and olive oil. In this study, extra virgin olive oil samples were submitted to accelerated interaction conditions, in contact with polypropylene (PP) and polylactide (PLA) plastic packaging materials. 3D-front-face fluorescence spectroscopy, being a simple, fast and non destructive analytical technique, was used to study this interaction. Independent components analysis (ICA) was used to analyze raw 3D-front-face fluorescence spectra of olive oil. ICA was able to highlight a probable effect of a migration of substances with antioxidant activity. The signals extracted by ICA corresponded to natural olive oil fluorophores (tocopherols and polyphenols) as well as newly formed ones which were tentatively identified as fluorescent oxidation products. Based on the extracted fluorescent signals, olive oil in contact with plastics had slower aging rates in comparison with reference oils. Peroxide and free acidity values validated the results obtained by ICA, related to olive oil oxidation rates. Sorbed olive oil in plastic was also quantified given that this sorption could induce a swelling of the polymer thus promoting migration.     

Solid-phase extraction-thin-layer chromatography-gas chromatography method for the detection of hazelnut oil in olive oils by determination of esterified sterols

The sterol composition of extra virgin olive oil is very characteristic and, thus, has become a helpful tool to detect adulterations with other vegetable oils. Special attention has been addressed to the separate determination of the free and esterified sterol fractions, since both have different compositions and can thus provide more precise information about the actual origin of the olive oil. In the case of admixtures with small amounts of hazelnut oil, this approach can be extremely useful, because the similarity between the fatty acid compositions of both oils hampers the detection of the fraud. A hyphenated chromatographic method was developed for a sensitive and precise determination of esterified sterols in olive oils. The oil was subjected to silica solid-phase extraction (SPE) fractionation, cold saponification of the collected fraction and purification on silica TLC. The sterol band was then injected into an SPB-5 (30 m x 0.25 mm I.D., 0.25 microM film thickness) and the ratio [% campesterol x (% 7-stigmastenol)2]/(% 7-avenasterol) was calculated. The method was tested on extra virgin olive oil; good sterol recoveries and repeatability were obtained. The results were compared with another method. which has a different sample preparation sequence (silica column chromatography, hot saponification and silica TLC). Similar results were achieved with both methods; however, the SPE-cold saponification-TLC-capillary GC was faster, required less solvent and prevented sterol decomposition. The SPE-method was applied to an admixture with 10% of hazelnut oil and to a screening of 11 oils (husk oil, virgin and refined olive oils) from different Mediterranean countries.     

Application of solid-phase microextraction to the analysis of volatile compounds in virgin olive oils

Solid-phase microextraction was used as a technique for headspace sampling of extra virgin olive oil and virgin olive oil samples with different off-flavours. A 100 microm coated polydimethylsiloxane fiber was used to extract volatile aldehydes, the sampling temperature was 45 degrees C and the fiber has been exposed to the headspace for 15 min. Nonanal and 2-decenal were present in all the olive oils with extraction off-flavours but were not in extra virgin olive oil sample.     

Expanding the analytical toolbox for identity testing of pharmaceutical ingredients: Spectroscopic screening of dextrose using portable Raman and near infrared spectrometers

In the pharmaceutical industry, dextrose is used as an active ingredient in parenteral solutions and as an inactive ingredient (excipient) in tablets and capsules. In order to address the need for more sophisticated analytical techniques, we report our efforts to develop enhanced identification methods to screen pharmaceutical ingredients at risk for adulteration or substitution using field-deployable spectroscopic screening. In this paper, we report our results for a study designed to evaluate the performance of field-deployable Raman and near infrared (NIR) methods to identify dextrose samples. We report a comparison of the sensitivity of the spectroscopic screening methods against current compendial identification tests that rely largely on a colorimetric assay. Our findings indicate that NIR and Raman spectroscopy are both able to distinguish dextrose by hydration state and from other sugar substitutes with 100% accuracy for all methods tested including spectral correlation based library methods, principal component analysis and classification methods.     

Total luminescence spectroscopy with pattern recognition for classification of edible oils

Total luminescence spectroscopy combined with pattern recognition has been used to discriminate between four different types of edible oils, extra virgin olive (EVO), non-virgin olive (NVO), sunflower (SF) and rapeseed (RS) oils. Simplified fuzzy adaptive resonance theory mapping (SFAM), traditional back propagation (BP) and radial basis function (RBF) neural networks provided 100% classification for 120 samples, SFAM was found to be the most efficient. The investigation was extended to the adulteration of percentage v/v SF or RS in EVO at levels from 5% to 90% creating a total of 480 samples. SFAM was found to be more accurate than RBF and BP for classification of adulterant level. All misclassifications for SFAM occurred at the 5% v/v level resulting in a total of 99.375% correctly classified oil samples. The percentage of adulteration may be described by either RBF network (2.435% RMSE) or a simple Euclidean distance relationship of the principal component analysis (PCA) scores (2.977% RMSE) for v/v RS in EVO adulteration.