Rapid methodology via mass spectrometry to quantify addition of soybean oil in extra virgin olive oil: A comparison with traditional methods adopted by food industry to identify fraud

•Extra virgin olive oil fraud detection 4500 × faster than conventional techniques•Innovative technique quantifying small (1%) adulteration in extra virgin olive oil•Lipid markers only for soybean oil in comparison to extra virgin olive oil•Direct infusion by ESI-MS with little sample preparation

Fast and innovative methodology to monitors the addition of soybean oil in extra virgin olive oil was developed employing ESI-MS with ionization operating in positive mode. A certified extra virgin olive oil and refined soybean oil samples were analyzed by direct infusion, the identification of a natural lipid marker present only in soybean oil (m/z 886.68 [TAG + NH4]+) was possible. The certified extra virgin olive oil was purposely adulterated with soybean oil in different levels (1, 5, 10, 20, 50, 70, 90%) being possible to observe that the new methodology is able to detect even small fraud concentration, such as 1% (v/v). Additionally, commercial samples were analyzed and were observed the addition of soybean oil as a common fraud in this segment. This powerful analytical method proposed could be applied as routine analysis by control organization, as well as food industries, considering its pronounced advantages; simplicity, rapidity, elevated detectability and minor amounts of sample and solvent consumed.

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