Integrated multi-method approaches to ensure olive oil authenticity and traceability

Olive oil is a high-value product in the agrifood sector, widely recognised for its rich nutritional profile and health-promoting properties. Its supply chain plays a strategic role in agrifood systems, with significant implications for economic development and environmental sustainability. With over twothirds of global production, the European Union leads the international olive oil market, not only in terms of volume, consumption, and exports, but also through its consolidated know-how rooted in agricultural tradition, high product quality, and extensive varietal diversity. In an increasingly complex and globalised agrifood landscape, ensuring authenticity and traceability of olive oil have become critical. The growing sophistication of food fraud, combined with the inherent geographical and varietal variability of olive oil, requires the development and implementation of advanced analytical methodologies that improve transparency and protect and enhance the value of high-quality products on global markets. In this context, the aim of the present study is to apply an integrated multi-method approach, based on the synergistic use of complementary chemical-analytical techniques to investigate the traceability and authenticity of olive oils. The proposed approach combine complementary methodologies including Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-AES), UV-Vis spectrophotometry, and Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry (IRMS), to develop a robust model for the characterisation and discrimination of olive oils according to their varietal and geographical origin. This strategy underscores the importance of employing diverse and complementary analytical techniques to generate comprehensive data on both nutritional components and potential contaminants, as well as isotopic signatures. This is crucial to improve transparency, enhancing consumer safety, and promoting the recognition and competitive market positioning of authentic, high-quality olive products in global markets. Acknowledgment: This work was funded by AGRITECH “National Research Centre for Agricultural Technologies” which received funding from the European Union – NextGenerationEU, under the Italian National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) – Mission 4 “Education and Research”, Component 2 “From Research to Business”, Investment 1.4: Strengthening research structures and supporting the creation of “national R&D leaders” on key enabling technologies —CN00000022 (D.D. 1032 17/06/2022) This work was supported by METROFOOD-IT, which received funding from the European Union - NextGenerationEU, under the Italian National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) - Mission 4 “Education and Research”, Component 2 “From Research to Business”, Investment 3.1: Fund for the realisation of an integrated system of research and innovation infrastructures—IR0000033 (MD Prot. n. 120 of June 21, 2022).