Investigations on the Quality of Italian and Greek Olive Oils in Terms of Varietal and Geographical Origin by Using Different Analytical Methods

The European Union provides important guidelines for maintaining the Protected Designation of Origin of numerous food products, as in case of the olive oil, since the origin marks certify a high quality level of food, conferring, as a consequence, prestige and economic value. Therefore, in this context it is extremely important to consider the topic of the characterization of foods based on variety (cultivar) and geographical origin, as this may be used as a criterion for determining authenticity and quality. This chapter constitutes an overview of the results obtained by the authors through studies aiming at the differentiation of the geographic and varietal origin of olive oils, dealing with the classification of Italian olive cultivars based on compositional data and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance determinations, and with the characterization of the geographical origin of Western Greek and Italian virgin olive oils based on instrumental and multivariate statistical analysis.