Rapid authentication of olive oil adulteration by Raman spectrometry

The authentication of olive oil and its adulteration with lower priced oils are still serious problems in the olive oil industry. In this study, a method based on the intensity ratio of the Raman spectroscopy vibration bands, especially on the intensity ratio of the cis ( ==C-H) and cis (C=C) bonds normalized by the band at 1441 cm(-1) (CH(2)), was established to authenticate genuine/fake olive oil. These intensity ratios of the vibration bands given in the form of a two-dimensional chart allow first the discrimination between the various grades of olive oil and the seed oils and then the detection of olive oil fraud by the line of y = 0.7, which is observed under most experiments and dot charts. This method can reliably distinguish the genuine olive oils from the olive oils containing 5% (volume percentage) or more of other edible oils, such as soybean oil, rapeseed oil, sunflower seed oil, or corn oil. Compared to the traditional principal component analysis method, this method is more intuitive, more precise, and easier to use. Moreover, this method also has the advantages of simplicity efficiency and has no need for sample preprocessing, being especially suitable for on-site testing in field applications.