Metabolomic approach for Extra virgin olive oil origin discrimination making use of ultra-high performance liquid chromatography – Quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry

• Published in: Food control Vol. 70; pp. 350 - 359
• Main Authors: Gil-Solsona, Rubén, Raro, Montse, Sales, Carlos, Lacalle, Leticia, Díaz, Ramon, Ibáñez, María, Beltran, Joaquim, Sancho, Juan Vicente, Hernández, Felix J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01-12-2016
• Subjects: Extra virgin olive oil; Food authenticity; High resolution mass spectrometry; Liquid chromatography; Metabolomics; Quadrupole time-of-flight; High resolution mass spectrometry; Quadrupole time-of-flight; Metabolomics; Extra virgin olive oil; Liquid chromatography; Food authenticity
• ISSN: 0956-7135; 1873-7129
• DOI: 10.1016/j.foodcont.2016.06.008

The fraudulent miss-description on food product labels regarding origin or composition is a widespread problem. In this work, a metabolomic approach based on the use of ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled to quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC-QTOF-MS) has been applied to identify the differentiating chemical markers that allow geographic origin discrimination between different Spanish Extra Virgin Olive Oils (EVOOs). For this purpose, ninety EVOOs from 6 Spanish regions were analyzed. Data processing consisted on peak picking, retention time alignment and response normalization. Partial Least Square Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA) and orthogonal PLS-DA (OPLS-DA) were applied to identify the most significant markers that allow groups separation. Twelve different compounds were found to correctly separate the EVOOs from their origin and 7 of them could be tentatively identified. The results of our work suggest that UHPLC-QTOF MS-based metabolomic analysis is a suitable approach for biomarker-detection in the food quality/safety field.
•A metabolomics untargeted strategy was followed.•Twelve compounds were highlighted and a classification method was developed.•MS-based metabolomics has demonstrated its potential in food authenticity field.