Prediction of various chemical parameters of olive oils with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy

•Ability of FTIR for prediction of olive oil chemical parameters was investigated.•Oxidative stability, chlorophyll content and certain fatty acids are predicted well.•Good estimation of hydroxytyrosol and tyrosol content of olive oils is obtained.

Vibrational spectroscopic techniques offer advantages such as rapid and accurate measurements with minimum sample preparation and waste generation. In this study, it was aimed at determining some important quality parameters (oxidative stability, colour pigments, fatty acid profile and phenolic composition) of olive oils by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy as one of the vibrational spectroscopic methods. Partial least square calibration models were constructed in order to reveal any correlation between quality parameters and spectral data. Regression coefficients for developed models showed that oxidative stability (0.99), chlorophyll content (0.98), some major fatty acids (palmitic (0.87), oleic (0.94), and linoleic acids (0.97), saturated (0.91), monounsaturated (0.94) and polyunsaturated fatty acids (0.97)), hydroxytyrosol as a phenolic compound (0.97) and total phenolic content (0.99) were predicted successfully. Variable influence on the projection values indicated that palmitic, vanillic and cinnamic acids and hydroxytyrosol are the most significant contributors to oxidative stability of olive oils.