Advanced solutions for assuring the overall authenticity and quality of olive oil

Project Information

OLEUM

Grant agreement ID: 635690

DOI

10.3030/635690

Project closed

EC signature date 8 July 2016

Start date 1 September 2016

End date 28 February 2021

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine, maritime and inland water research, and the bioeconomy

Total cost

€ 5 347 267,62

EU contribution

€ 4 878 860,87

Coordinated by

ALMA MATER STUDIORUM - UNIVERSITA DI BOLOGNA
Italy

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - OLEUM (Advanced solutions for assuring the overall authenticity and quality of olive oil)

Reporting period: 2019-09-01 to 2021-02-28

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Europe accounts for more than 70% of global olive oil (OO) production; non-EU countries, traditionally importers, are also increasing production. This, as well as the enlarged competitiveness, highlights the need to update and harmonize analytical methods for assuring quality and authenticity of OO. The high price of OO, its sensory profile, and healthy reputation make it a target for fraud.
The overall objective of OLEUM is to guarantee OO quality and authenticity through three strategic actions:
1. Develop new and/or improved analytical methods.
2. Establish an online, integrated database, the OLEUM Databank.
3. Promote the OLEUM Network, a worldwide community of OO sector stakeholders.
Four main areas of improvement need to be addressed by OLEUM:
i) Legislative and regulatory: developing solutions to support international regulators and policy makers.
ii) Analytical: revising existing and developing new analytical methods for OO quality and authenticity.
iii) Harmonization and coordination: promoting technology transfer to a wide community. A user-friendly OLEUM Databank will store data, analytical methods and calibration materials.
iv) Consumer and market confidence: developing a simple and proactive dissemination strategy to promote the correct image of OO.
OLEUM, coordinated by Prof. Tullia Gallina Toschi (University of Bologna), started in September 2016, has a duration of 54 months and involves 21 partners from 15 countries.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Taking into consideration the answers to questionnaires sent to stakeholders and the EU FFN National Contact an update of the common and emerging frauds in the OO sector was delivered.
A selection was made, among all the approaches developed, to choose 4 methods covering 6 SOPs that have undergone formal validation by international collaborative trial:
1. New/revised method to detect illegal blends of OOs with other vegetable oils: determination of free and esterified sterols 2. Revised method to detect blends of EVOOs with soft-deodorized OOs (sdOOs): determination of fatty acids ethyl esters (FAEEs) 3. Method to be selected during the project: determination of phenolic compounds (health claim) 4. Methods/tools to support assessment of the sensory characteristics of VOOs (Quantitative Panel Test): winey-vinegary and rancid as sensory reference materials (RMs), untargeted SPME-GC-MS as a screening approach based on volatiles, SPME-GC-FID and MS as targeted methods for determination of selected volatiles.
Key outcomes from the validation studies were: i) an improved internationally validated method for the quantitative determination of FAEEs ii) the first internationally validated method for the simultaneous quantitative determination of the minimum number of volatile compounds to support the panel test iii) an internationally assessed fingerprinting method based on volatile compounds to support the official panel test iv) an international evaluation of the usefulness of the 2 sensory RMs to be proposed for selection, training and monitoring of assessors.
These methods will be proposed to the competent authorities and international bodies for their inclusion in official regulations. For OO quality control: more than 300 commercial VOO samples were analyzed by instrumental tools and sensory evaluation was carried out by 6 accredited panels. A decision tree for a robust quality classification of each sample, based on the sensory results, was built. Two new artificial sensory RMs were formulated and tested. A software to estimate the freshness/quality deterioration of VOOs was established. A portable system to measure free acidity, a rapid fluorescent method to detect the total amount of lipophilic phenolic compound were developed. For OO authenticity control: samples of illegal (sdOOs and vegetable oils) and legal (vegetable oils) blends with OOs and EVOOs were prepared and analyzed. A decision tree for the detection of percentages of OO in blends with other vegetable oils was elaborated. More than 200 commercial VOOs were analyzed to establish the conformity of label-declared geographical origin.
The OLEUM Databank, aimed to provide control bodies with a shared platform holding analytical data produced within OLEUM together with sample information was launched; this will contribute to a more effective collaboration and proficiency of the authorized quality control laboratories in EU.
A wide range of national and international laboratories have been trained in the new procedures and are now part of a OLEUM network of analysts and laboratories interested in methods of analyses for olive oil: the OLEUM Linkedin group has over 140 members. For a wide communication and dissemination, the project website is regularly updated and newsletters have been released. Infographics to simply disseminate OO information, as well as a project video, were developed. Scientific articles (22) were published, as well as several others in popular and trade media, and the project results presented in conferences.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

OLEUM is converting its goals into concrete impacts addressing the major players in the OO arena:
1. The OO industry and quality control laboratories: one of the main OLEUM outputs is the generation of two waves of new and revised methods to detect fraud and verify the quality of OO. OLEUM relies on full validated methods and reference materials delivered to regulatory bodies and their provision to Standard Developing Organization (IOC, EU, ISO, CODEX). The OLEUM Databank will multiply the dissemination of methods and data, with an evident benefit for the official quality control laboratories and for the OO industry. The existence and update of the OLEUM Databank has already caught the attention of standardization bodies and relevant stakeholders (e.g. ISO, AOCS, AOAC) and will improve the reputation of the EU foods. The issue of transferability of data is also associated with the need to enhance the analytical expertise and the proficiency of the laboratories within the OO international community. This should reduce the litigations due to the not correct application of the methods.
2. International regulators and policy makers: the impact of OLEUM lies in supporting the establishment of a harmonized system for fraud protection. OLEUM is acting on the technical tables of several OO policy makers in finding solutions that can be translated into recommendations and guidelines. The impact of OLEUM also deals with the possibility to speed up the adoption of validated procedures, thanks to a collaborative trial carried out before the proposal to regulatory bodies. During this process, new needs and drawbacks are raised with a continuous feeding of quality/authenticity controls.
3. Consumers and the OO market: OLEUM is eliciting public comprehension and dissemination of the unique characteristics of OO, as well as a better guarantee the effective detection of illegal practices, thus restoring consumers’ confidence and enlarging the correct and direct OO knowledge. One of the novelties of OLEUM is the sense of responsibility, commitment in defending the reputation of OOs, sustainability aspects, and culture. This can be realized by not feeding the easy road of the scandal, but providing timely reliable information. With this aim, OLEUM is adopting different channels and tools, including e.g. visual games, simple answers to simple questions, and training sessions for the methods developed.

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