CHARACTERIZATION OF EUROPEAN VIRGIN OLIVE OILS USING FATTY-ACIDS

The possibility of discriminating between extra virgin Olive oils from different regions of Spain, Italy and Portugal, by means of their fat ty acid content, has been investigated. A dendrogram allowed discrimin ation between the oils starting from their initial grouping and progre ssing to differentiation on the basis of regions. Multivariant statist ical analyses were applied to determine the actual discriminatory capa city of this group of compounds. The confidence associated with the fi nal discrimination was ascertained using the theory of evidence.