Fatty acid alkyl esters presence in olive oil vs. organoleptic assessment.

The scientific work on the authenticity and quality of olive oil is an ever-growing area. Olive oil genuineness is not only valuable for the producers, but also for the consumers who expect an actual correspondence between the products they purchase and the information on the packaging labels. Sometimes oil's rejection by consumers is just a matter of taste, sometimes is a more objective question. Low quality olive oils with weak organoleptic defects are the targets of illegal blends that can be detected by determining the content of fatty acid alkyl esters (FAAEs). In this line we have established a relationship between the FAAEs concentration of olive oils and their sensory classification. Besides, a connection between the presence of large quantities of FAAEs and fermentative organoleptic defects has been proven.