Discriminating olive and non-olive oils using HPLC-CAD and chemometrics

This work presents a method for an efficient differentiation of olive oil and several types of vegetable oils using chemometric tools. Triacylglycerides (TAGs) profiles of 126 samples of different categories and varieties of olive oils, and types of edible oils, including corn, sunflower, peanut, soybean, rapeseed, canola, seed, sesame, grape seed, and some mixed oils, have been analyzed. High-performance liquid chromatography coupled to a charged aerosol detector was used to characterize TAGs. The complete chromatograms were evaluated by PCA, PLS-DA, and MCR in combination with suitable preprocessing. The chromatographic data show two clusters; one for olive oil samples and another for the non-olive oils. Commercial oil blends are located between the groups, depending on the concentration of olive oil in the sample. As a result, a good classification among olive oils and non-olive oils and a chemical justification of such classification was achieved.