Discrimination amongst olive oil categories by means of high performance-ion mobility spectrometry: A step forward on food authentication

High-performance-ion mobility spectrometry (HPIMS) has been employed for the first time in the analysis of olive oil samples after a simple liquid-liquid extraction procedure. The HPIMS-based methodology herein developed is user friendly, fast (30 s per analysis) and inexpensive. Moreover, solvent consumption is minimal, thus complying with the principles of green chemistry. The potential of the proposed approach in combination with multivariate analysis has been evaluated for classification of olive oil samples according to their organoleptic quality: extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), virgin olive oil (VOO) and lampante olive oil (LOO). In this work, 115 olive oil samples among the three categories, previously tasted by two Panel Tests, were used as reliable analytical standards to calibrate and validate the chemometric models. The average success rate of classifying samples was 68.9% for validating the ternary model (EVOO, VOO, and LOO). However, the binary model to differentiate between non-defective (EVOO) and defective (VOO and LOO) samples provided a mean classification success rate of 88.3%. In addition, EVOO samples were better classified, with a success rate of similar to 90%. The proposed strategy could be used as a valuable tool to support Panel Tests in the industry, allowing for a rapid discrimination between EVOO and non-EVOO samples.

Automated summary

High-performance-ion mobility spectrometry (HPIMS) was used for the first time in the analysis of olive oil samples, following a simple liquid-liquid extraction procedure. The developed methodology is user-friendly, fast, and inexpensive, complying with the principles of green chemistry. The proposed approach, combined with multivariate analysis, showed potential in classifying olive oil samples based on their organoleptic quality, with high accuracy rates.