Much data on the characterization of olive oil quality, including single cultivar, produced in Italy, has been described in the literature. In the Mediterranean area, where olive growing has a strong historical, cultural, and economic value, olive oil production and the different analytical methodologies to evaluate the factors that might influence its chemical composition have long been studied. Recognition of the influence of these factors has led researchers to study the olive oil obtained from the same cultivar in different geographical areas, over the course of several subsequent harvesting campaigns and at different degrees of olive ripeness. The fine composition of olive oil, and therefore its sensory characteristics, in addition to being strongly dependent on the nature of the cultivar used for its production, is also influenced by several other factors like climatic and edaphic conditions as well as agricultural practices. The consumption of virgin olive oil, which is defined as oil obtained only by mechanical extraction from the fruit Olea europea L., is increasing due to its nutritional properties stemming from the high content of mono and polyunsaturated fatty acids (oleic, linoleic and linolenic acids). Since the 1950s, medical and nutritional investigations confirmed the importance of olive oil, with a high content of monounsaturated fatty acids, for cardioprotective effects and protection against hypertension, diabetes and risk of cancer at several body sites. One of the key features of the diet is the nature of fats consumed. It is evident that this approach has the potential to reveal the origin of EVOO, although the results support the need for a larger database, including EVOO from other Italian regions. ![]() All are of great importance because of their nutritional value and differential effects on the oxidative stability of oils. The PCA loadings disclose the components responsible for the discrimination as unsaturated (oleic, linoleic, linolenic) and saturated fatty acids. In conclusion, our study revealed that most EVOO (extra virgin olive oils) tested were closer to Greek (in particular) and Spanish olive oils than Apulia EVOO. Two oils of the third group (3 samples) were more similar to Tunisian references. Among them only the first (7 samples) and the second group (2 samples) showed PCA ranges similar to European references. The olive oils commercially available as Italian products in the U.S. market olive oils compared to other single cultivars of extra virgin olive oil such as Coratina and Ogliarola from Apulia, one of Italy’s leading olive oil producers, Picual (Spain), Kalamata (Greece) and Sfax (Tunisia). Chemometric methods such as unsupervised Principal Component Analysis (PCA) allowed good discrimination and gave some affinity indications for the U.S. ![]() ![]() Multivariate analysis of 1H NMR data has been used for the characterization of 12 blended olive oils commercially available in the U.S.
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