Characterisation of 39 varietal virgin olive oils by their volatile compositions

Thirty-nine single virgin olive oils from eight producer countries, but cultivated in the same orchard under identical agronomic and pedoclimatic conditions, were characterised by 64 volatile compounds quantified by dynamic headspace-gas chromatography. The method was validated by analysing the relative standard deviation in repeatability and intermediate reproducibility of each volatile compound. Data on the total content of volatiles and C6 compounds - responsible for the green odour perception-, and the total content of hydrocarbons, aldehydes, alcohols, ketones and esters are displayed and discussed for each individual virgin olive oil. Fifty volatile compounds were characterised by their sensory attributes, determined by olfactometry. The Student t-test was used to determine the level of significance of each volatile compound characterising the varieties. The odour threshold and the maximum concentration of the most notable volatiles are also displayed. Finally, the Brown-Forsythe test and stepwise linear discriminant analysis were used to check the ability of the volatiles to cluster the varietal virgin olive oils according to their autochthonous geographical origin. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.