Acesur has reached a revolutionary technological milestone that can have an impact on the operations of the entire olive sector, optimizing the evaluation and control work carried out by the Panel Test, which has certain drawbacks, such as:
- Lack of precision, since, being a subjective method, there is high variability in the results of the tastings between different tasting panels.
- Cost and operability, a tasting has a high cost and tasting professionals need extensive background to be able to exercise with guarantees, in addition, a tasting panel must be composed of at least eight tasters in each session.
- Time, a panel cannot carry out more than 12 daily tastings to guarantee optimal results, while using the “Easy Taste” method, up to 50 can be carried out in one day without reducing the results.
The weaknesses of the test panel sometimes lead to serious difficulties when classifying some complex oils, which can translate into significant economic losses for producers, commercial problems and legal uncertainty for the bottler and consumer mistrust.
Now, virgin olive oil is the only food in which sensory tasting is used to differentiate one category from another.
The “Easy Taste” project has managed to resolve a historical technological gap in the olive sector, obtaining an analytical method of sensory evaluation that complements and exceeds the Panel Test tool.
This method is based on obtaining a chromatographic profile of the volatile components present in each olive oil using a gas chromatograph coupled to mass spectrometry. The predictive mathematical model developed within the project processes this profile of volatile compounds, offering the commercial category (extra virgin, virgin and lampante) with great precision.
In achieving this unprecedented technological milestone in the olive sector, the collaboration of the accredited tasting panel of the INDLAB laboratory, together with the Central Research Support Services (SCAI) of the University of Córdoba (UCO), has been decisive.
The equipment or “electronic nose” is already operational in the Acesur oil laboratory, located in Vilches, where more than 600 samples of virgin olive oil have already been analyzed.
“Easy Taste” has required an investment of more than 600,000 euros, and has received in part financial support from CDTI within the framework of the State Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation 2014-2020 and has the support of the European Union through the allocation of ERDF funds.
