Study evaluates chemometric and molecular methods for olive oil-based products

In this review, researchers from the Institute of Mediterranean Forest Ecosystems in Greece focused on food products made from olives (Olea europaea) and the methods currently used to analyze them for quality control. Their article was published in the Journal of Food Processing and Preservation.

• Olives are a crucial part of the Mediterranean diet.
• Olive tree products, especially olive oil, have been used and consumed by great civilizations since ancient times.
• Due to their popularity, there is a need for better analytical methods to be developed for the authentication, quality control, and traceability of olive-based products.
• Currently used physiochemical and sensory methods include classical methods and novel methods supplemented with molecular marker techniques, such as SSR, AFLP, and RAPD.
• Classical methods are used for discrimination, ordination, and classification, while novel methods involve artificial neural networks, fuzzy logic, expert systems, decision trees, and support vector machines.
• These complex methods are necessary to detect adulteration of olive products, particularly olive oil, which is mainly used for human consumption.
• The researchers believe that the lack of mathematical symbolism and jargon in their article will make it more attractive to potential workers in the field and will help them improve the already low level of adulteration in olive products.
• They also hope that their review can help augment the quality control databases for Mediterranean olive products.

The researchers presented data that will make it easy for future researchers to select the best and most suitable statistic model or equation to test their hypothesis, improve olive-based food adulteration, and augment quality control databases for Mediterranean olive products.

Journal Reference:

Avramidou EV, Doulis AG, Petrakis PV. CHEMOMETRICAL AND MOLECULAR METHODS IN OLIVE OIL ANALYSIS: A REVIEW. Journal of Food Processing and Preservation. 4 November 2018;42(11). DOI: 10.1111/jfpp.13770