The aim of the project was to support Ivalsa-CNR, which manages a wide collection of olive cultivars and produces experimental olive oils from single cultivars, in measuring the volatile compounds that are relevant for the perceived sensory quality, thus highlighting the different olive oils peculiarities.

The project studied different experimental monovarietal olive oils to investigate the existing difference in the volatile profiles. This activity included:

• Analysis of the aromatic profile by means of the head-space gas-chromatography (SPME GC-MS) to quantify the aromatic matrix and correlate it with the olfactory quality.
• Data analyses by applying both basic statistic techniques to describe the observed volatiles concentrations and multivariate techniques to describe the general sample variability and to identify possible patterns in the data set.