This peer-reviewed pre-print (open access) reports a classification model for different Greek olive oil cultivars using combined data from two analytical techniques: volatile component analysis (6 marker compounds) by solid phase microextraction – gas chromatography (SPME-GC-MS) and spectral analysis by attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR)
The model was built to differentiate Greek oils from 3 cultivars: Koroneiki, Megaritiki and Amfissis. The reference database was constructed from samples collected over 3 harvest seasons. The authors report that application of the supervised methods of linear and quadratic discriminant cross-validation analysis, based on volatile component data, provided a correct classification score of 97.4 and 100.0%, respectively. The corresponding statistical analyses were used in the mid-infrared spectra where the 96.1% of samples were discriminated correctly.
The authors conclude that ATR-FTIR and SPME-GC-MS, in conjunction with the appropriate feature selection algorithm and classification methods, are powerful tools for the authentication of Greek olive oil. They consider that the proposed methodology could be used in industrial settings for the determination of Greek olive oil botanical origin.