Vacuum-assisted headspace SPME: A powerful tool for extra virgin olive oil profiling enhancement

Vacuum is a new experimental parameter to control and exploit during headspace microextraction (HS-SPME) method optimization and has been proved to be a powerful alternative to accelerate the extraction kinetics of analytes with a low affinity for the headspace. The effect of this additional parameter was explored for the first time on a fatty matrix, namely olive oil. Extra virgin olive oil has a complex volatile aroma profile, which depends on several parameters (e.g., cultivar, geographical origin, processing practices, storage). Past and current research efforts focus on unravelling the composition of this informative volatile fraction, so as to understand correlations with quality attributes. In the present work, the effects of extraction temperature and sampling time were investigated using traditional one variable at a time approach. The results showed a great improvement in the extraction of semi-volatile compounds using Vac-HS-SPME leading to an enhancement in the information gained by the olive oil aroma fingerprint.