Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
Olive oil price and consumers’ preference depend
on the commercial grade classification that can decrease if any
sensory defect is perceived leading to an economic loss.
Enriched oils, obtained by incorporating dried aromatic herbs,
spices, or essential oils, which is a common practice in the
Mediterranean region, are commercially available. This practice
may conceal the fraudulent purpose of masking the perception
of sensory defects. The detection of this type of fraud
is a difficult task, requiring sensory analysis. Thus, in this
study, extra-virgin and lampante olive oils, the latter classification
being due to the perception of an intense winey-vinegary
defect, were deliberately enriched with different amounts of
basil-dried herbs and oregano-dried herbs. Sensory analysis
showed that, depending on the aromatic herb and on the added
amount (0.011–0.110 g herb per kg oil), the defect intensity
could be masked leading to an erroneous classification of flavored
lampante oils as flavored virgin oils. In contrast, the
electronic tongue-chemometric approach could unmask the
defect in flavored oils (predictive sensitivities: 70–78%) and
semiquantitatively discriminate flavored oils according to the
added levels of basil or oregano (predictive sensitivities:
93–100%). The electronic tongue approach showed satisfactory
unmasking performance when compared with the sensory
panel, and so, its future application as a quality control tastesensor
device for disclosing olive oil sensory defects masked
by the incorporation of flavoring agents may be forseen.
Description
Keywords
Aromatic herbs flavoring Electronic tongue Olive oil Physicochemical analysis Sensory analysis Sensory defect detection
Citation
Bobiano, Marta; Rodrigues, Nuno; Madureira, Marta; Dias, Luís G.; Veloso, Ana C.A.; Pereira, José A.; Peres, António M. (2019). Unmasking Sensory Defects of Olive Oils Flavored with Basil and Oregano Using an Electronic Tongue-Chemometric Tool. JAOCS, Journal of the American Oil Chemists' Society. ISSN 0003-021X. 96, p. 751-760