Regional and cultivar comparison of Italian single cultivar olive oils according to flavor profiling

Abstract

Geographical origin, cultivar, and olive ripening stage are important factors which affect the typical flavor profile of extra virgin olive oils. Aromatic compounds and sensorial profiles of “Casaliva”, “Frantoio”, and “Leccino” olive oils from three different Italian production regions Abruzzo (eastern‐central Italy), Lombardy (northern Italy), and Tuscany (western‐central Italy) were assessed in two cropping years and at three olive ripening stages (green, veraison, and ripe). The chemical aromatic compounds were more effective in discriminating the oils than their sensorial attributes. Oils showed peculiar aromatic and sensorial profiles according to their region of origin. Genetically similar “Casaliva” and “Frantoio” showed also analogous profiles, but distinct from “Leccino”. The interaction between regions of cultivation and cultivars significantly affected the flavor profiling. Practical applications: This research provides a sound proof that geographical origin, cultivar, and fruit ripening stage, could play an important interactive role in shaping the flavor profiling of extra virgin olive oils. This represents a scientific basis of the “typicality” concept, which should address the marketing strategies for exploiting of the PDO products.

Characterization of aroma compounds in Portuguese extra virgin olive oils from Galega Vulgar and Cobrançosa cultivars using GC–O and GC×GC–ToFMS

“…This misclassification may be due to similar volatile profiles of olive oils from Cobrançosa fruits collected in October and in November. Tura, Failla, Bassi, Attilio, and Serraiocco (2013) confirmed that the ripening stage influence both trans-2-hexenal and 1-penten-3-one, as well as Garcia, Magalhães, Fregapane, Salvador, and Paiva-Martins (2012) for the last compound. Prenzler et al (2007) without pre-selection of volatile compounds, found that trans-2-hexenal, hexanol, 1-penten-3-ol and cis-2-penten-1-ol, contribute towards the discrimination of maturity stages.…”

Volatile compounds of olive oils from different geographic regions in Turkey

“…It is noted that furan formation from unsaturated fatty acids is associated with the lipid oxidation. [29] In this study, PCA was applied to assess the relationships between regions and chemical groups of volatile compounds (Fig. 1), the differences between volatile compounds depending on the region (Fig.…”

Pre-and post-harvest factors and their impact on oil composition and quality of olive fruit

“…For instance, Abo-shoka cultivar performed two times higher olive weight compared with the Improved Nabali cultivar. Cultivar also exerts influences on the triglyceride composition (Giuffrè, 2013a), wax ester content (Giuffrè, 2013b), volatile compounds (Tura et al, 2013), fatty acid composition (Caporaso, 2016) and the fatty alcohol content (Giuffrè, 2014a(Giuffrè, , 2014b. Variety selection is one important factor, which should be considered prior to olive tree planting for increased harvesting efficiency (Ravetti, 2008).…”

“…For example, Wadi-bin Hamad area showed the highest olive fruit weight compared with the Al-Mshaqar area of all cultivars (Al-Maaitah et al, 2009). The flavor of olive oils depends on its area of geographical origin because they influenced by the environmental condition (Tura et al, 2013). The growing area has impacted on the cis-3hexenal, cis-3-hexenol, hexanal, hexanol, trans-2-hexenal, trans-3-hexenol and trans-2-hexenol (Vichi et al, 2003).…”

“…The olive fruit maturation degrees play a crucial role in the chemical and sensory elements (Gómez-Rico et al, 2009). The ripeness influences the volatile compound concentrations (Tura et al, 2013). They mentioned that the early mature stage olive fruits showed higher volatile compound concentrations compared with late mature stage olive fruits.…”