Authentication of extra virgin olive oils by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy

Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), followed by multivariate treatment of the spectral data, was used to classify vegetable oils according to their botanical origin, and also to establish the composition of binary mixtures of extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) with other low cost edible oils. Oil samples corresponding to five different botanical origins (EVOO, sunflower, corn, soybean and hazelnut) were used. The wavelength scale of the FTIR spectra of the oils was divided in 26 regions. The normalized absorbance peak areas within these regions were used as predictors. Classification of the oil samples according to their botanical origin was achieved by linear discriminant analysis (LDA). An excellent resolution among all categories was achieved using an LDA model constructed with eight predictors. In addition, multiple linear regression models were used to predict the composition of binary mixtures of EVOO with sunflower, corn, soybean and hazelnut oils. For all the binary mixtures, models capable of detecting a low cost oil content in EVOO as low as 5% were obtained.