The potential of HPLC triglyceride profiles for the classification of cretan olive oils

One hundred and twenty authentic olive oil samples of the two major Cretan 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 to characterize the oils according to cultivar, location and sampling date. Using the triglyceride compositional data, the two varieties examined were sufficiently separated by means of discriminant analysis procedures. Within each variety the oils were grouped quite clearly according to their geographic origin. Samples that originated from neighbouring locations with no marked differences in geographic morphology, or samples from locations with some extremes in the climatic conditions, presented some discrepancies in classification.© 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd