Traceability of Croatian extra virgin olive oils to the provenance soils by multielement and carbon isotope composition and chemometrics

Mavro Lučić; Maja Jukić Špika; Nevenka Mikac; Filip Pošćić; Zed Rengel; Marija Romić; Helena Bakić Begić; Željka Fiket; Martina Furdek Turk; Niko Bačić; Renata Leder; Ivana Vladimira Petric; Branimir Urlić; Mirella Žanetić; Marko Runjić; Gabriela Vuletin Selak; Elda Vitanović; Tatjana Klepo; Jakša Rošin; Slavko Perica

doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2023.136401

Traceability of Croatian extra virgin olive oils to the provenance soils by multielement and carbon isotope composition and chemometrics

Food Chem. 2023 Oct 30:424:136401. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2023.136401. Epub 2023 May 19.

Authors

Mavro Lučić¹, Maja Jukić Špika², Nevenka Mikac³, Filip Pošćić⁴, Zed Rengel⁵, Marija Romić⁶, Helena Bakić Begić⁶, Željka Fiket³, Martina Furdek Turk³, Niko Bačić³, Renata Leder⁷, Ivana Vladimira Petric⁷, Branimir Urlić⁸, Mirella Žanetić², Marko Runjić⁸, Gabriela Vuletin Selak⁸, Elda Vitanović⁸, Tatjana Klepo⁹, Jakša Rošin⁸, Slavko Perica²

Affiliations

¹ Ruđer Bošković Institute, Bijenička Cesta 54, Zagreb 10000, Croatia. Electronic address: mlucic@irb.hr.
² Institute for Adriatic Crops and Karst Reclamation, Put Duilova 11, Split 21000, Croatia; Centre of Excellence for Biodiversity and Molecular Plant Breeding, Svetošimunska 25, Zagreb 10000, Croatia.
³ Ruđer Bošković Institute, Bijenička Cesta 54, Zagreb 10000, Croatia.
⁴ Institute for Adriatic Crops and Karst Reclamation, Put Duilova 11, Split 21000, Croatia; Department of Environmental Science, The University of Arizona, Postdoctoral Affairs Building: 1600 E. First Street, Tucson, AZ 85719, USA.
⁵ Institute for Adriatic Crops and Karst Reclamation, Put Duilova 11, Split 21000, Croatia; UWA School of Agriculture and Environment, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Perth, WA 6009, Australia.
⁶ Department of Soil Amelioration, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zagreb, Svetošimunska Cesta 25, Zagreb 10000, Croatia.
⁷ Croatian Agency for Agriculture and Food, Centre for Viticulture, Enology and Edible Oils Analysis, Gorice 68b, Zagreb 10000, Croatia.
⁸ Institute for Adriatic Crops and Karst Reclamation, Put Duilova 11, Split 21000, Croatia.
⁹ Institute for Adriatic Crops and Karst Reclamation, Put Duilova 11, Split 21000, Croatia; Center of Pomology, Croatian Agency for Agriculture and Food, Kralja Zvonimira 14a, Solin 21210, Croatia.

PMID: 37229899
DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2023.136401

Abstract

A capacity to determine the provenance of high-value food products is of high scientific and economic interest. With the aim to develop a tool for geographical traceability of Croatian extra virgin olive oils (EVOO), multielement composition and ¹³C/¹²C isotope ratio in EVOO as well as the geochemistry of the associated soils were analysed in samples collected from three regions along the Croatian Adriatic coast. Soil geochemistry was shown to influence the transfer and elemental composition of EVOO. The most discriminating variables to distinguish EVOO from different regions were S, Mo, Rb, Mg, Pb, Mn, Sn, K, V and δ¹³C. The predictive models achieved high sensitivity and specificity, especially when carbon isotope composition was added. The results suggest that interregional geographical traceability of Croatian EVOO is possible based on matching their multielement composition with that of the soils in the provenance area.

Keywords: Carbon isotope ratio; Chemometrics; Multielement composition; Olive oil; Soil; Traceability.

MeSH terms

Carbon Isotopes / analysis
Chemometrics*
Croatia
Olive Oil / chemistry
Plant Oils / analysis
Soil*

Substances

Olive Oil
Soil
Carbon Isotopes
Plant Oils