Analyses of Different Grades of Olive Oil by Volatile Mass Spectrometry

Introduction

Olive oil is a high value commodity. It’s food use is of particular concern, as consumers want to be sure they are purchasing high quality products that are free of adulteration and fraud.

Extra-virgin olive oil is most desired for it’s superior taste. Naturally, the superior taste and quality of extra-virgin olive oil comes from strict production standards, and brings a higher cost to produce; this cost is passed on to consumers.

It is distressing to consider that consumers may pay for extra-virgin olive oil that has been adulterated with sub-par olive oil, oils from other plants, or in the worst case, oil not meant for consumption. Testing by sensorial analysis must be done to ensure that a product labeled as extra-virgin is indeed pure, highest-quality olive oil. In this application note, we demonstrate the use of the Advion expression^s CMS with a volatile APCI (vAPCI) ion source to analyze extra-virgin, virgin, and lampante olive oil samples. We show statistical analysis allowing us to categorize and identify olive oil samples by their grade. This technique allows us to test individual olive oil samples and determine if they are truly extra-virgin, virgin, or lampante grade.

>> Download the full Application Note as PDF

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