Temporal changes of virgin olive oil volatile compounds in a model system simulating domestic consumption: The role of biophenols

• A storage test simulating a home consumption of virgin olive oil (VOO) was set up.
• The effect of biophenols on the volatile compounds concentration was investigated.
• Biophenols reduced the loss of aroma compounds during domestic consumption.

Virgin olive oil (VOO) aroma is one of the main quality attributes, to be maintained and preserved from the production to the use. We investigated the changes in VOO volatile compounds in a model system, made by refined olive oil spiked with selected VOO volatile molecules representative of its aroma, and the effect of VOO phenolic compounds addition upon storage to simulate the home consumption. Storage up to 7 days was carried out under conditions simulating the home-use/storage of the oil, at 10 °C in darkness, by sampling periodically an aliquot of oil by opening the bottle. SPME–GC/MS was used to quantify headspace concentration of 12 target volatile compounds. Storage resulted in a general lowering of most of the key aroma compounds. The presence of phenolic compounds resulted in a lower loss (17–44%) of aroma compounds with respect to the system without phenolics, whereas the strength of the effect depended upon the chemical classes and specific volatile compounds considered. Our results showed how the volatiles changes in 1 week of use and that biophenols reduce the loss of positive odor notes of VOO also during home/restaurant consumption and storage once the bottle is opened.

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