VIRGIN OLIVE OIL ADULTERATION WITH OTHER EDIBLE OILS: INFLUENCE OF SUBSTITUTION ON PHYSICOCHEMICAL PROPERTIES

Abstract

Adulteration  is  a  common  practice  in  the  field  of  virgin  olive  oil  industry  because  of  its greater  demand  at  European  and  international  level.  The  olive  oil  represents  around  of  4%  of  the edible oil at international level.The aim of this paper is to study the influence of olive oil adulteration
by substitution with other types of edible oils (sunflower, corn and groundnut) in different percentages (10%, 20%, 30%, 40% and 50%, respectively). The physicochemical properties studied were: density, refraction index and saponification index. The suitable parameter for the adulteration identification is the  density,  at  percentages  of  substitution  greater  than  5%  it can  be  observed  that  the  parameter values is getting out of the domain from the EU regulations. The refractive index is not a proper tool for the adulteration identification, because its values are in the normal  range in  all the substitutions levels. The saponification index can be used for the identification of virgin olive oil adulteration with sunflower and corn oils in substitutions greater than 30%.