Differential Analysis of Olive Oils with Pegasus GC-HRT and ChromaTOF-HRT® Reference Feature

Introduction

Characterization of food products, including differential analysis, is important in the food industry for quality control, brand awareness, and authentication of materials and products. GC coupled with high resolution TOFMS isolates individual analytes within complex matrices through both chromatographic and mass spectral resolution and provides confident analyte identifications with industry-leading mass accuracy. These analytical tools were employed for a nontargeted volatile analysis of aroma and flavor analytes in representative extra-virgin and light olive oil samples from a single manufacturer. Automated Peak Finding and sample comparison tools, such as "Reference," within the ChromaTOFHRT^® software provide rapid sample characterizations and differentiation to help researchers reliably determine what else is in their sample and if it should be there. These analysis tools were used to highlight and confidently identify differences between the samples which are important in differentiating oil varieties and in determining the source of unanticipated analytes in the samples. These capabilities may also facilitate detection of food fraud by readily distinguishing extra-virgin from light olive oil and other edible oils.