title: Origin assessment of EV olive oils by esterified sterols analysis.
abstract: In this study extra virgin olive oils of Italian and non-Italian origin (from Spain, Tunisia and blends of EU origin) were differentiated by GC-FID analysis of sterols and esterified sterols followed by chemometric tools. PCA allowed to highlight the high significance of esterified sterols to characterise extra virgin olive oils in relation to their origin. SIMCA provided a sensitivity and specificity of 94.39% and 91.59% respectively; furthermore, an external set of 54 extra virgin olive oils bearing a designation of Italian origin on the labelling was tested by SIMCA. Prediction results were also compared with organoleptic assessment. Finally, the poor correlation found between ethylesters and esterified sterols allowed to hazard the guess, worthy of further investigations, that esterified sterols may prove to be promising in studies of geographical discrimination: indeed they appear to be independent of those factors causing the formation of ethyl esters and related to olive oil production.
authors.affiliation: Chemical Laboratory of Palermo, Italian Customs and Monopolies Agency, via Crispi, 143, 90133 Palermo, Italy.
authors.forename: Rosa
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Giacalone
authors.affiliation: Chemical Laboratory of Palermo, Italian Customs and Monopolies Agency, via Crispi, 143, 90133 Palermo, Italy.
authors.forename: Salvatore
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Giuliano
authors.affiliation: Chemical Laboratory of Palermo, Italian Customs and Monopolies Agency, via Crispi, 143, 90133 Palermo, Italy.
authors.forename: Eleonora
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gulotta
authors.affiliation: Central Directorate for Product Analysis and Chemical Laboratories, Italian Customs and Monopolies Agency, via M. Carucci 71, 00143 Rome, Italy. Electronic address: maria.monfreda@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Monfreda
authors.affiliation: Chemical Laboratory of Palermo, Italian Customs and Monopolies Agency, via Crispi, 143, 90133 Palermo, Italy.
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Presti
mesh_terms: D005504:Food Analysis / Q000379:methods*; D050356:Lipid Metabolism; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D000069463:Olive Oil / Q000737:chemistry*; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D013030:Spain; D013261:Sterols / Q000032:analysis*; D014416:Tunisia
chemical_list: D000069463:Olive Oil; D013261:Sterols
keywords: Esterified sterols; Olive oil; Origin; Principal Component Analysis; Soft Independent Models of Class Analogy