Rapid direct analysis to discriminate geographic origin of extra virgin olive oils by flash gas chromatography electronic nose and chemometrics.

At present, the geographical origin of extra virgin olive oils can be ensured by documented traceability, although chemical analysis may add information that is useful for possible confirmation. This preliminary study investigated the effectiveness of flash gas chromatography electronic nose and multivariate data analysis to perform rapid screening of commercial extra virgin olive oils characterized by a different geographical origin declared in the label. A comparison with solid phase micro extraction coupled to gas chromatography mass spectrometry was also performed. The new method is suitable to verify the geographic origin of extra virgin olive oils based on principal components analysis and discriminant analysis applied to the volatile profile of the headspace as a fingerprint. The selected variables were suitable in discriminating between "100% Italian" and "non-100% Italian" oils. Partial least squares discriminant analysis also allowed prediction of the degree of membership of unknown samples to the classes examined.

Olive oil enriched in lycopene from tomato by-product through a co-milling process.

The aim of this investigation was to produce an olive oil (OO) naturally enriched with antioxidants, recovering carotenoids, in particular lycopene, using an industrial by-product of tomato seeds and skin. For this purpose, a technological process in a low-scale industrial plant to co-mill olives and tomato by-product in de-frosted or freeze-dried forms was applied and studied with respect to control samples. Preliminary results obtained from two different experiments were carried out by 40 kg of cultivar Correggiolo olives and 60 kg of olive blends from different cultivars. In both the experiments, the co-milling showed significant enrichment in carotenoids, especially in lycopene (mean values of 5.4 and 7.2 mg/kg oil from defrosted and freeze-dried by-products, respectively). The experimental results demonstrated the possibility to obtain a new functional food naturally enriched in antioxidant compounds, which might be marketed as "OO dressing enriched in lycopene" or "condiment produced using olives and tomato by-product".