Investigating the fatty acids exceeding the limits of the European regulation
2008
Perri, E. | Caravita, M.A. | Benincasa, C. | Muzzalupo, I. | Romano, E. | Rizzuti, B. | Pellegrino, M. | Parise, A. | De Rose, F. | Pellegrini, A.
Olive oil is mainly composed of oleic acid, followed by other fatty acids such as palmitic, stearic and linolenic acids. As established by European Union (EU) in the Commission Regulation (CEE) number 2568/91, as amended by the Regulation CE 1989/2003, the fatty acid composition and the range of each fatty acid were set up in order to avoid frauds based on addition of other edible oils and/or differentiate foreign oils since there are a few olive oil varieties especially grown outside Europe that show levels of fatty acids exceeding the limits of the European Regulation. From the study on the fatty acids composition obtained by HRGC of extra-virgin olive oils from 2005/2006 year made on 693 samples, 191 out of 693 showed values exceeding the limits of the European Regulation CE 1989/2003. The samples under investigation were produced in different Italian regions: Calabria, Sicily, Apulia, Lombardy, Tuscany and Basilicata. In particular, the most frequent exceeding data concerned the content of heptadecenoic and linolenic fatty acids that seems to increase in the last years with respect to the established values and the geographical location possibly due to the changes of the climate of the place. For this reason, the CRA Experimental Institute for Olive Growing started an investigation on the occurrence and the corresponding frequency of the Italian virgin olive oil fatty acids which do not respect the EU official limits
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