THE POTENTIAL OF HPLC TRIGLYCERIDE PROFILES FOR THE CLASSIFICATION OFCRETAN OLIVE OILS

One hundred and twenty authentic olive oil samples of the two major Cr etan olive cultivars, Koroneiki and Mastoidis, collected at different maturity stages have been obtained from different producing areas and analysed by isocratic high-performance liquid chromatography according to the official EC method. Multivariate analysis, including principal component analysis and canonical discrimination analysis, were used t o characterize the oils according to cultivar, location and sampling d ate. Using the triglyceride compositional data, the two varieties exam ined were sufficiently separated by means of discriminant analysis pro cedures. Within each variety the oils were grouped quite clearly accor ding to their geographic origin. Samples that originated from neighbou ring locations with no marked differences in geographic morphology, or samples from locations with some extremes in the climatic conditions, presented some discrepancies in classification. (C) 1997 Elsevier Sci ence Ltd.