Qualitative and quantitative analysis of the aroma compound of our olive oil quickly and reproducibly-Olive oil

SHODOSHIMA HEALTHYLAND

Objective presentation of the rich aroma of olive oil

Shodoshima Healthy Land Co., Ltd. (Kagawa Prefecture, Japan) is located in Shodoshima Island in the Seto Inland Sea. We are developing agricultural diversification (so-called the sixth sector industrialization in Japan) , from the cultivation of olive “trees of life” to the manufacture and sale of commodities that contribute to mental and physical health. The Central Institute of Olive and Health Sciences, established as an in-house research and development organization, aims to pursue the possibilities of olives and to contribute to world health and beauty with olives.

Olive oil presentation

Olive oil with rich aroma and taste is used not only as an edible oil but also as medical products and cosmetics. The specialty of our beauty olive oil is a fruity aroma by the original production method (lactic acid fine fermentation of fruit and oil extraction). We had presented our product with this aroma using sensory evaluation results. However, if it can be evaluated more objectively and reproducibly, we thought that it would be possible not only to increase the persuasive power but also to enhance the quality management of the aroma. This is the reason why we decided to introduce the Electronic nose system.

 With HERACLES II, we are now able to perform qualitative and quantitative analysis of the aroma compound of our olive oil quickly and reproducibly.

In ISOEN 2017 (17th International Symposium on Olfaction and Electronic Noses) held in Canada, we made 2 presentations: “Sensory Characterization of Oils Extracted from Lacto-Fermented Olives Using an Electronic Nose” and “Assessing Production of Medicinal Liqueur Using an Electronic Nose.” For the first topic, we received the Alpha MOS industrial award. Furthermore, utilizing the fact that HERACLES II is a very fast and high sensitive GC, we made a success in identifying the scent marker peculiar to the olive fruit disease and detecting 1% of the disease contamination (paper submitted). It is also possible to detect volatile toxic substances by heating of vegetable oil (paper submitted).

Future plan

We will make full use of the electronic nose system, not only to explain the rich aroma of olive oil to customers more objectively but also to improve the accuracy of the quality inspection.